PEKSIAN    EMPIRE  AND   GREECE. 


Jtstotj}  printers        Edited  by].  R.  Green 


HISTORY 


GREECE 


BY 

C.    A.    FYFFE,  M.A., 

FELLOW  AND  LATE  TUTOR  OF  UNIVERSITY  COLLEGE,  OXFORD 


WITH  MAPS 


NEW  YORK  •:•  CINCINNATI  •:•  CHICAGO 

AMERICAN     BOOK     COMPANY 


? 


\* 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  I. 


I  AGP 

1HE  BEGINNINGS   OF  THE   GREEKS     .      .      •     «  I 


CHAPTER  II. 
PELOPONNESUS  DOWN  TO   B.C.    500— COLONIES  .      1 8 

CHAPTER   III. 

ATTICA  TO   B.C.    5QO 37 

CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  IONIC  REVOLT  AND   PERSIAN  WARS     .      •     c      .     49 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE   EMPIRE  OF  ATHENS  AND  THE  PELOPONNESIAN 

WaR 73 

CHAPTER   VI. 

SPARTA,  THEBES,   MACEDONIA     .*••••••   102 

CHAPTER  VII. 

EMPIRE  OF  ALEXANDER IT? 


LIST   OF   MAPS. 

PAGE 

t,  PERSIAN  EMPIRE  AND  GREECE  .     .    Frontispiece. 

2.  GREECE  AND   THE   MOMKS   COASTS IO 

3.  SOUTHERN   GREECE 1 9 

4.  THF.  GREEK   COLONIES 34 

5.  SALAMIS  AND   COAST   OF  ATTICA     ......  6a 

'53 


HISTORY    PRIMERS. 

GREECE. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE     BEGINNINGS     OF    THE    GREEKS. 

I.  Greeks  and  Italians. — Most  of  the  history 
that  we  have  of  Europe  before  the  birth  of  Christ  is  the 
history  of  the  Greeks  and  Italians.  They  were  not 
the  only  nations  in  ancient  Europe  \  there  were  other 
great  races,  such  as  the  Gauls,  and  our  own  forefathers, 
the  Germans.  Why  is  it  that  ancient  history  tells  us  so 
much  about  the  Greeks  and  the  Italians,  and  so  litde 
about  these  ?  Because,  while  the  Greeks  and  Italians 
learnt  to  live  in  cities,  and  made  reasonable  laws  and 
governments,  and  grew  rich  by  trade,  these  other 
nations  remained  savage  and  ignorant.  If  we  knew 
the'ir  history  during  those  times,  it  would  not  interest 
us.  We  should  hear  of  little  but  battles  and  wan- 
derings; and  after  hundreds  of  years  we  should  find 
them  living  in  much  the  same  rough  way  as  at  the 
beginning.  Lut  while  the  northern  races  were  still 
barbarous,  the  Greeks  and  Italians  had  begun  to  live 
more  like  modern  nations,  and  had  done  great  deeds, 
whose  effects  last  to  this  day.  The  Greeks  saved 
Europe  from  being  conquered  by  Asiatic  races,  and 
spread  a  happier  and  more  interesting  life  among  the 
nations  round  them.  Not  that  the  Greeks  were 
perfect,  any  more  than  other  nations,  ancient  or 
modern.  They  had  faults  in  abundance,  and  a  great 
part  of  their  history  is  the  history  of  discord  and 
violence.  But  in  the  midst  of  these  evils  we  shall 
meet  with  instances  of  the  most  striking  goodness  ,• 
and  while  the  vices  of  the  Greeks  belonged  to  other 
ancient  nations,  their  good  points  raised  them  in  many 


6  THE  GREEKS  AND  OTHER  RACES,     [chap. 

respects  above  all  the  rest  of  mankind.  No  race  evei 
did  so  many  different  things  well  as  the  Greeks.  They 
were  the  first  people  who  thought  of  finding  out  the 
truth  and  the  reason  in  everything.  Busy  men  in  oui 
own  day  take  pleasure  in  what  lemains  of  the  Greek 
writers  of  poetry  and  history ;  and  artists  know  that 
they  can  never  make  anything  more  beautiful  than 
what  is  left  of  Greek  sculpture.  Men  will  always  be 
interested  in  ancient  Greece,  not  only  because  the 
Greeks  were  so  bright  and  so  clever  themselves,  but 
because  so  many  things  which  we  value  most  id  Cur 
own  life,  such  as  the  desire  for  knowledge,  the  power 
of  speaking  eloquently,  and  the  arts  of  music  and 
painting,  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  Greeks.^ 

2.  Connection  of  Greeks  with  other  Races. 
Yet  the  Greeks  were  not,  like  the  Arabs  or  Chinese, 
of  a  quite  different  race  from  our  forefathers,  the 
northern  nations  who  were  then  so  barbarous. ,  In 
very  ancient  times,  long  before  the  oldest  books  were 
written,  there  was  a  people  living  between  the 
Caspian  Sea  and  the  mountains  to  the  west  of  India, 
from  whom  not  only  the  Greeks  and  Italians  but  most 
other  European  nations,  as  well  as  the  Hindoos,  are 
descended.  The  words  used  by  all  these  nations 
for  certain  things  are  very  like  one  another ;  and 
this  shows  that  there  was  a  time  when  they  were 
a  single  race,  using  the  same  words.  Tims  the  words 
iox  father  in  all  these  languages  are  merely  the  same 
word  a  little  changed  :  German,  voter ;  Greek,  warifa 
(pater);  Latin,  pater;  Old  Hindoo,  pita.  In  the 
course  of  time,  as  this  people  grew  larger,  different 
parts  of  it  went  off  in  different  directions,  and 
became  distinct  nations.  They  grew  more  and 
more  unlike  one  another,  and  made  such  changes 
.n  the  old  language  which  they  had  all  spcken,  that, 
instead  of  there  being  one  language  for  all,  each 
nation  came  to  have  one  of  its  own.  One  part  of  the 
people  went  to  India,  another  part  to  North  Europe  : 
other  branches  spread  over  Italy,  Greece,  and  Asi? 


(.J  GREECE  MANY  STATES.  7 

Minor.  The  Italians  and  Greeks  were  a  single  nation 
long  after  the  Germans  and  Hindoos  had  separated 
from  them  ;  and  therefore  their  languages  are  much 
more  like  one  another  than  either  of  them  is  to  the. 
language  of  the  German  or  the  Hindoo.  Some  of  the 
races  in  the  west  of  Asia  Minor  seem  to  have  been 
originally  much  like  the  Greeks;  and  in  very  early 
times  it  is  probable  that  men  crossed  from  the  coast 
of  Asia  Minor  to  Greece,  and  founded  kingdoms  on 
the  Greek  coast.  Afterwards  bodies  of  Greeks  settled 
on  the  Asiatic  coast ;  and  therefore,  though  European 
Greece  is  called  Greece  Proper,  the  west  coast  of  Asia 
Minor  (First  Map)  was  equally  called  Greece,  for 
the  people  who  lived  there  were  Greeks,  and  were 
mixed  up  in  all  that  happened  in  Greek  history.  The 
Greeks  did  not  call  themselves  Greeks  but  Hellenes 
('EWrjiaz)  :  and  any  district  in  which  Hellenes  lived 
was  called  Hellas  fEXXac),  whether  it  was  in  Europe, 
Asia,  or  Africa.  '  We  shall  see  how  adventurous  a 
people  the  Greeks  were,  and  how  they  founded  colo- 
nies in  distant  parts  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  on 
the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea. 

3.  Greece  not  one  but  many  States. — There 
is  one  great  difference  between  ancient  Greece  and  a 
modern  country  like  England.  All  England  is  under 
one  chief  government,  namely  the  Queen  acting  under 
the  advice  of  her  Parliament ;  and  the  laws  made  in 
Parliament  are  obeyed  by  the  whole  nation.  Each 
town  is  allowed  to  manage  some  of  its  own  affairs, 
such  as  lighting  and  paving  its  streets,  but  no  town 
is  independent  of  the  laws  and  government  of  the 
whole  country.  We  have  one  army  and  one  navy 
for  the  whole  country,  and  no  part  of  England  would 
think  of  separating  itself  from  the  rest.  But  Greece 
was  not  a  single  country  like  this.  It  was  broken 
up  into  little  districts,  each  with  its  own  government. 
Any  little  city  might  be  a  complete  State  in  itself,  and 
independent  of  its  neighbours.  It  might  possess  only 
a  lew  miles  of  land  and  a  lew  hundred  inhabitants. 


8  GREECE  CUT  UP  BY  MOUNTAINS,     [chap. 

and  yet  have  its  own  laws,  its  own  government, 
and  its  own  army,  though  the  army  might  not  be 
so  large  as  a  single  English  regiment.  In  a  space 
smaller  than  an  English  county  there  might  be 
several  independent  cities,  sometimes  at  war,  some- 
times at  peace  with  one  another.  Therefore  when 
we  say  that  the  west  coast  of  Asia  Minor  was  part  of 
Greece,  we  do  not  mean  that  this  coast-land  and  Euro- 
pean Greece  were  under  one  law  and  one  government, 
for  both  were  broken  up  into  a  number  of  little  inde- 
pendent States  :  but  we  mean  that  the  people  whc 
lived  on  the  west  coast  of  Asia  Minor  were  just  as 
much  Greeks  as  the  people  who  lived  in  European 
Greece.  They  spoke  the  same  language,  and  had 
much  the  same  customs,  and  they  called  one  another 
Hellenes,  in  contrast  to  all  other  nations  of  the  world, 
whom  they  called  barbarians  (fiapfiapoi),  that  is,  "  the 
unintelligible  folk,"  because  they  could  not  understand 
their  tongue. 

4.  Greece  cut  up  by  Mountains. — Greece, 
from  the  first,  was  not  a  single  State  like  England,  but 
divided  into  many  little  ones.  Homer  gives  a  long 
list  of  kings  who  brought  their  forces  to  the  siege 
of  Troy  (p.  n)  ;  and  all  through  Greek  history  we 
shall  be  reading  about  a  number  of  very  small  States. 
Why  was  this  ?  Because  Greece  was  naturally  cut  up 
into  little  pieces  by  mountains.  In  the  south  of  Eng- 
land we  can  get  easily  from  any  one  place  to  any  other; 
and,  where  there  are  hills,  they  are  not  high  or  rugged 
enough  to  prevent  our  having  roads  over  them.  But 
in  Greece  there  are  so  many  mountains  really  difficult 
to  cross,  that  the  fertile  spots  among  them,  where 
people  settled,  are  quite  cut  off  from  one  another; 
and  in  early  times,  before  men  made  much  use  of 
ships,  they  would  hardly  ever  see  any  one  outside 
their  own  valleys.  We  shall  see  what  a  difference  this 
made  to  Greece  if  we  compare  it  with  Egypt  or  Baby- 
lon. Egypt  is  the  rich  flat  land  on  both  sides  of  the 
Nile.     You  can  sail  up  the  Nile  with  the  wind,  and 


f.]  GREEKS  AND  PHOENICIANS.  9 

drop  down  it  with  the  current,  so  that  it  was  always 
easy  to  go  from  one  part  of  Egypt  to  another.  Hence 
from  the  earliest  times  Egypt  has  been  a  single 
country,  under  one  great  king,  like  the  Pharaohs  in 
the  Bible.  It  is  the  same  with  the  rich  flat  lands 
about  Babylon  on  the  river  Euphrates.  There  was 
nothing  to  separate  one  part  of  that  country  from 
another;  a  single  king  ruled  over  a  large  district,  and 
could  raise  a  great  army.  The  power  and  magnifi- 
cence of  the  kings  overawed  the  people,  who  had  no 
thought  of  resisting  the  royal  power,  Hence  the  kings 
of  Babylon  became  absolute  masters  over  their  sub- 
jects, like  Nebuchadnezzar  (Daniel  hi.),  and  the 
people  were  little  more  than  slaves.  In  Greece  the 
case  was  the  reverse  of  this.  There  is  no  one  large 
flat  tract  in  the  whole  of  Greece.  The  mountains 
divide  it  into  a  number  of  very  small  districts,  and  in 
each  of  these  districts  the  king  was  only  like  the  chief 
among  the  heads  of  the  families.  He  had  not  wealth 
enough  to  live  in  a  splendid  palace  like  eastern  kings, 
and  make  the  people  think  he  was  a  kind  of  god ; 
nor  could  he  raise  a  great  army,  and  overrun  neigh- 
bouring countries,  and  make  the  people  his  slaves. 

5.  Greeks  and  Phoenicians. — In  the  beginning 
then  we  find  the  Greeks,  broken  up  into  little  groups, 
covering  European  Greece  and  the  islands  near  it 
(Map,  p.  10),  and  races  very  like  them  upon  the  west 
coast  of  Asia  Minor.  The  rich  men  owned  flocks 
and  herds,  corn-lands  and  vineyards  ;  the  poor  had 
little  farms  of  their  own,  or  worked  as  labourers  for 
the  rich.  But  upon  the  coast  a  new  and  busier  life  was 
beginning.  There  the  Greek  first  met  the  Phoenician 
(Canaanite)  merchant  from  Tyre  or  Sidon  (First  Map) 
(see  1  Kings  ix.  27  ;  x.  22),  who  had  begun  to  trade 
.with  distant  lands,  while  the  Greeks  were  still  simple 
farmers.  The  Phoenicians  had  an  alphabet,  and  a 
scale  of  weights  and  measures,  long  before  the  Greeks. 
They  had  made  many  discoveries,  or  learnt  them  from 
other  Eastern  nations.   They  had  learnt  how  to  make  a 


PIRACY. 


fCITAP. 


purple  dye  for  hangings  and  for  great  men's  robes  from 
the  shell  of  a  little  sea-creature,  and  how  to  dig  mines 
and  to  work  metals  (2  Chronicles  lii.  3,  7  •  Esther  viii. 
15).  When  the  best  trees  in  the  forests  of  Mount 
Lebanon  were  cut  down,  and  the  Phoenicians  had 
to  go  in  search  of  wood  for  their  ships,  they  found 
abundance  of  oak,  pine,  and  beech  on  the  shores  of 
the  /Egoean  Sea.  They  discovered  that  the  root  of 
the  Greek  evergreen  oak  could  be  used  for  tanning, 


GREECE  AND    THE    yEGvEAN    COASTS. 


and  its  berries  for  a  dye  ;  and  often  in  these  same 
forest  districts  they  found  copper,  iron,  and  silver. 
Hence  the  Phoenicians  came  more  and  more  to  the 
Greek  coasts,  freighting  their  ships  with  goods  made 
at  Tyre  or  Sidon,  and  exchanging  them  with  the 
Greeks  for  timber  or  wool,  or  even  for  men  ano> 
women,  whom  they  sold  as  slaves.  In  time  the  Greeks 
on  the  coast  came  to  know  all  that  the  Phoenicians 
knew  .  they  took   their  alphabet,  their  weights,  and 


I.j  HOMERIC  POEMS.  n 

their  measures  ;  and  they  made  ships  like  those  which 
the  Phoenicians  used,  and  began  to  sail  along  the 
shores.  At  first  when  they  took  to  the  sea  it  was 
not  so  much  for  trade  as  for  piracy.  Piracy  was  not 
thought  wrong.  A  band  of  bold  men  would  launch 
their  vessel  and  sail  along  the  coast  to  attack  the  first 
merchant-ship  they  might  meet,  or  would  land  and 
plunder  the  villages  on  the  shore.  In  terror  of  the 
pirates  the  inhabitants  of  these  villages  often  left 
their  old  homes,  and  established  themselves  at  some 
distance  from  the  shore. 

6.  Homeric  Poems.— Two  long  poems  have 
come  down  to  us  from  the  very  early  times  of  Greece, 
which  the  Greeks  believed  to  have  been  written  by  a 
single  poet  named  Homer.  One  of  these,  called  the 
Iliad,  tells  us  of  the  deeds  of  the  heroes  at  the  siege 
of  Troy,  or  Ilion.  Paris,  son  of  Priam,  king  of  Ilion, 
according  to  the  stories,  carried  off  Helen,  the  wife 
of  Menelaus,  king  of  Sparta ;  and  in  order  to  recover 
her  the  Greeks  united  to  besiege  Troy,  and  took  it 
after  ten  years'  siege.  The  greatest  hero  among  the 
Greeks  in  the  Iliad  is  Achilles ;  among  the  Trojans, 
Hector.  The  other  poem,  called  the  Odyssey,  is 
about  the  wanderings  and  adventures  of  Odysseus 
(Ulysses),  king  of  Ithaca,  the  wisest  of  all  the  Greeks, 
on  his  return  home  after  Troy  was  taken.  The  Iliad 
gives  us  a  picture  of  warfare ;  the  Odyssey  shows  us 
the  quiet  life  of  the  family  of  Odysseus  at  home,  and 
also  tells  about  wonderful  places  and  people,  such  as 
the  early  Greek  sailors  may  have  brought  home  stories 
about,  and  such  as  we  now  read  of  in  fairy  tales. 
Though  the  Homeric  poems  do  not  relate  things 
that  really  happened,  they  give  us  some  idea  of  the 
way  in  which  the  Greeks  must  have  been  living  when 
these  poems  were  composed.  Each  district  was 
governed  by  a  king  (ftaaiXevc),  who  was  also  priest 
and  offered  up  the  public  prayers  and  sacrifices. 
By  the  side  of  the  king  there  were  a  number  of  chiefs, 
also  called  /JcunXcZt,  whom  the  king  assembled  in 
2 


12  HOMERIC  LIFE.  [chap. 

council  (fiov\r}\  to  ask  their  advice  upon  anything 
that  he  intended  to  do.  Each  chief  had  the  right  to 
say  what  he  thought  ;  and  though  the  king  was  not 
bound  to  go  by  their  advice,  we  can  see  how  the 
council  of  the  chiefs  would  in  fact  diminish  the  king's 
power.  When  the  king  had  made  up  his  mind,  he 
assembled  the  common  people  in  the  market-place 
(ayopa),  and  made  known  to  them  what  he  was  going 
to  do.  The  chiefs  might  speak  to  the  people  when 
they  were  thus  assembled,  but  no  one  among  the 
common  people  was  allowed  to  speak,  nor  did  it 
signify  what  the  people  thought.  In  the  Homeric 
poems  we  hear  very  little  about  the  common  people  : 
it  was  the  chiefs,  and  not  the  people,  who  kept  the 
king  from  being  an  absolute  ruler.  When  one  of 
the  common  people,  Thersites,  says  what  he  thinks, 
Odysseus  beats  him  severely,  and  the  people  side 
with  Odysseus.  Like  the  early  ages  of  all  countries, 
the  Homeric  age  was  a  time  of  war  and  violence. 
Plundering  expeditions  both  by  land  and  by  sea 
were  common  :  if  people  could  not  protect  them- 
selves they  were  liable  to  have  their  property  carried 
off,  and  to  be  made  into  slaves  themselves.  WTar  was 
carried  on  very  cruelly,  and  some  of  the  actions  of 
Achilles  described  in  the  Iliad  are  what  we  should 
consider  very  savage.  Deceit  was  not  thought  wrong, 
but  was  rather  admired  if  cleverly  carried  out.  On 
ihe  other  hand  there  are  many  fine  and  beauti- 
ful qualities  in  the  Homeric  age.  The  members  of 
a  family  love  and  resptet  one  another.  Great 
reverence  is  shown  to  parents.  The  wife  is  treated 
with  more  honour  by  her  husband  than  she  was  in 
most  other  countries,  or  than  she  was  in  Greece 
itself  in  later  times.  There  are  deep  and  faithful 
friendships,  and  sometimes  there  is  true  affection 
even  between  the  master  and  his  slave. 

7.  Early  Kingdoms— Crete,  Troy. — We  know 
very  little  about  the  events  of  these  early  times.  Real 
history  does  not  go  so  far  back ;  and  we  have  only 


[.]  EARLY  KINGDOMS.  13 

stories  about  them  which  tell  us  very  little  truth. 
One  of  the  great  kings  in  the  stories  is  Minos,  king 
of  Crete  (map,  p.  10).  Minos,  the  Greeks  believed, 
was  a  just  and  powerful  king,  who  ruled  over  all  the 
Greek  seas  and  islands,  and  put  an  end  to  the  pirates, 
establishing  peace  and  safety.  They  believed  that  aftei 
his  death  he  was  made  a  judge  over  the' souls  of  the 
dead,  because  he  had  ruled  so  strongly  and  so  justly. 
Now  it  is  certain  that  no  king  in  those  early  times 
really  had  such  wide  power  as  Minos  is  said  to  have 
had  :  but  it  is  perhaps  true  that  in  Crete  a  seafaring  life 
began  earlier  than  elsewhere  in  Greece,  and  that  the 
Cretan  kings  did  something  towards  checking  piracy. 

On  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor  one  of  the  earliest  king- 
doms was  the  Troas,  or  land  of  Troy,  at  the  south  end 
of  the  Hellespont,  the  southernmost  of  the  two  straits 
that  lead  from  the  Black  Sea  to  the  Mediterranean.  Its 
castle  and  town  stood  a  few  miles  inland  at  the  point 
where  the  hills  begin  to  rise.  The  tales  about  the  siege 
of  Troy  are  perhaps  only  beautiful  stories ;  but  there 
is  no  doubt  that  in  the  earliest  times  there  was  a  town 
there.  We  must  not  think  of  these  early  towns  as  large 
places  like  our  modern  towns.  They  were  little  more 
than  villages  with  walls  round  them. 

8.  Kings  in  Peloponnesus. — Many  stories  are 
told  about  the  great  families  who  reigned  in  Thebes 
and  in  Peloponnesus  (map,  p.  19),  and  of  their  war? 
and  misfortunes.  The  greatest  of  all  the  kings  in 
these  stories  is  Agamemnon,  king  of  Mykenae,  whom 
Homer  describes  as  commanding  all  the  Greeks  at 
the  siege  of  Troy.  Now  we  may  be  quite  sure  that  in 
those  early  times  the  Greeks  never  acted  all  together 
in  the  way  that  Homer  describes :  still,  whatever 
may  be  the  truth  about  Agamemnon,  there  certainly 
were  powerful  kings  at  Mykenae  and  other  places  in  the 
district  of  Argolis,  for  the  walls  of  their  castles  remain 
to  this  day.  These  walls  are  not  built  in  the  way  in 
which  the  later  Greeks  built  their  walls,  but  are  made 
if  enormous  blocks  of  stone,  so  huge  that  the  Greeks 


14  DORIANS  ENTER  PELOPONNESUS,     [chap. 

thought  that  the  builders  must  have  been  giants,  and 
called  such  buildings  Cyclopean,  that  is,  the  work  of  a 
Cyclops,  or  giant.  At  Tiryns  in  Argolis  there  are  Cyclo- 
pean walls  twenty-five  feet  thick,  with  a  passage  inside 
them  :  and  at  Mykense  there  are  walls  more  carefully 
built,  with  two  great  lions  carved  in  stone  over  the  gate- 
way. Not  far  from  these  there  is  a  large  underground 
building,  the  inside  of  which  was  once  covered  with 
plates  of  bronze.  This  was  the  treasure-house  and 
sepulchre  of  the  kings. 

9.  Dorians  enter  Peloponnesus.  Colonies 
in  Asia. — Though  the  kings  in  Argolis  built  such 
strong  castles,  their  kingdoms  were  overthrown.  A 
hardy  warlike  tribe  called  Dorians  left  their  homes  in 
North  Greece,  and  moved  southward,  in  search  of  a 
fertile  country.  They  came  into  Peloponnesus,  and 
proved  themselves  stronger  than  the  tribes  who  were 
then  living  there,  who  were  called  Achcmns  and 
Ionians,  Many  of  the  Ionians  would  not  submit  to 
be  ruled  by  Dorians  :  they  joined  with  other  Ionians 
who  were  living  in  Attica,  the  country  about  Athens 
(map,  p.  19),  and  sailed  away  to  Asia  Minor,  where 
they  settled  on  the  central  part  of  the  coast,  and  on 
the  islands  opposite  to  it,  and  founded  Miletus  and 
Ephesus  (Acts  xix.  1  ;  xx.  15),  and  other  cltTeT called 
the  Ionic  Colonics.  Athens  claimed  to  be  the  mother- 
city  of  the  Ionic  colonies,  though  many  of  them  did 
not  start  from  Attica.  Many  Achaeans  also  sailed 
away  from  Peloponnesus,  and  made  themselves  homes 
in  the  island  of  Lesbos,  and  on  the  north  part  of  the 
western  ccast  of  Asia  Minor.  The  cities  in  this  dis- 
trict were  however  not  called  the  Achcean  but  the 
Molic  Colonies.  Many  of  the  Dorians  too,  uhen 
they  heard  of  the  fine  climate  and  fertile  lands  across 
the  sea,  took  ship  themselves,  and  settled  in  Crete, 
and  on  the  south  part  of  the  west  coast  of  Asia  Minor. 
The  cities  they  founded  were  called  the  Dorian  Colo- 
niesy  and  the  most  famous  of  them  was  Rhodes.  Thus 
the  coming  of  the  Dorians  into  Peloponnesus  put  an 


!.]  COLONIES  IN  ASIA  MINOR.  15 

end  to  the  power  of  the  Achaean  kings  whom  Homer  de-  // 
scribes,  and  led  to  the  foundation  of  a  number  of  great'' 
cities  in  Asia  Minor.     But  we  must  not  suppose  that 
either  the  conquest  or  the  emigration  took  place  all  at 
once :  perhaps  both  were  going  on  for  hundreds  of  years. 

10.  Dorians  in  Peloponnesus. — The  Dorians 
were  not  numerous  enough  to  scatter  themselves  over 
the  whole  of  Peloponnesus.  On  the  north  coast,  on 
the  shore  of  the  Gulf  of  Corinth,  they  allowed  the 
Achaeans  to  remain  in  peace.  This  district  was  there- 
fore called  Achaea,  and  it  contained  twelve  cities. 
Nor  did  the  Dorians  conquer  the  mountainous  country 
of  Arkadia  in  the  middle  of  Peloponnesus.  Arkadia 
remained  as  it  was,  and  went  through  fewer  changes 
than  any  other  district  in  Greece,  so  that  Arcadian 
came  to  mean  rustic  or  old-fashioned.  On  the  west 
coast,  the  land  of  Elis  was  taken  by  the  ^Etolians, 
another  tribe  from  the  north  of  Greece.  In  the  rest  of 
Peloponnesus  the  Dorians  made  themselves  masters : 
and  it  is  after  their  invasion  that  the  old  poetic  stories 
end  and  real  history  begins. 

11.  Armies  and  Assemblies.  —  The  Greek 
States  being  very  small,  the  citizens  in  each  did  not 
keep  a  distinct  class  of  men  for  f^hting,  like  our 
army ;  but  every  citizen  of  a  certain  age  had  to  serve 
as  a  soldier  when  there  was  war.  Another  consequence 
of  the  smallness  of  the  Greek  States  was,  that  in  each 
of  them  the  whole  body  of  citizens  who  were  allowed 
to  have  any  share  in  the  government  was  able  to 
assemble  in  one  place.  In  a  large  modern  State 
iike  England,  it  is  impossible  for  all  the  citizens  to 
meet  at  a  single  spot ;  and  therefore  the  towns  and 
counties  choose  men  to  represent  them  in  Parliament 
This  is  called  Representative  Government,  and  it 
makes  it  possible  for  a  large  country  to  be  free  and 
well  governed.  The  opposite  of  Representative 
Government  is  where  the  citizens  all  actually  meet 
together,  as  in  the  Greek  States  ;  but  this  is  only  pos- 
sible where  the  State  is  very  small. 


16  GREEK  GODS  AND  HEROES.  [chak 

12.  Greek  Gods  and  Heroes. — The  Greeks 
believed  in  a  number  of  gods,  and  in  each  place 
certain  gods  were  worshipped  more  than  the  rest. 
They  thought  that  each  god  cared  for  some  par- 
ticular places  or  matters,  and  did  not  trouble  himself 
about  others.  Thus  the  goddess  Athene  was  believed 
to  protect  Athens,  and  greater  honours  were  paid  to 
her  there  than  to  any  other  deity.  Some  of  the  gods 
were  originally  things  in  nature  :  for  instance,  Apollo 
was  originally  the  sun  ;  but  the  Greeks  made  divine 
persons  out  of  them,  and  stories  were  told  of  the 
deeds  they  had  done.  Except  that  they  lived  for 
ever,  and  had  great  power,  the  Greek  gods  were 
very  like  human  beings  ;  and  they  were  represented 
by  statues  in  the  form  of  men  and  women,  but  more 
grand  and  beautiful.  The  Greeks  never  worshipped 
animals,  like  the  Egyptians,  nor  made  their  gods  in 
frightful  shapes,  like  the  Hindoos.  The  king  of  the 
gods  was  Zeus.  The  Heroes  were  not  gods,  but  a 
race  stronger  than  men,  who  lived  long  ago,  and  did 
wonderful  things  that  men  cannot  do  now.  The  tales 
told  about  the  gods  and  heroes  are  called  myths  (jjiv6ol). 
Every  village  had  some  myths  of  its  own,  and  when 
men  tried  to  put  them  all  together  they  made  long 
books,  and  the  whole  collection  of  myths  is  called  My- 
thology. The  Greeks  not  only  believed  the  myths  to 
be  real  facts,  but  there  was  hardly  anything  they  would 
not  account  for  by  some  story  about  the  gods  01 
aeroes.  Each  city  had  myths  which  explained  how 
its  customs  had  begun.  For  instance,  if  a  Spartan 
were  asked  why  there  were  always  two  kings  at 
Sparta  (p.  22)  he  would  say,  "  Because  Aristodemus, 
the  hero  who  first  led  the  Spartans  into  the  country, 
had  twin  sons." 

The  gods  were  worshipped  by  prayer  and  sacri- 
fices, but  worship  was  not  then,  as  it  is  now,  some- 
thing in  which  everybody  could  join.  In  each  place 
there  were  originally  groups  of  families  which  had 
certain  worships  of  their  own,  and  whoever  did  not 


u]  THE  EARLIEST  UNIONS  RELIGIOUS.  17 

belong  to  these  families  had  not  a  share  in  the  same 
worship. 

13.  The  Earliest  Unions  religious. — We  come 
now  to  the  first  kind  of  union  that  existed  between 
Greek  States.  Long  before  there  were  any  alliances  or 
treaties  of  peace,  tribes  that  lived  near  one  another 
would  unite  to  worship  a  certain  god  at  a  particular 
spot,  and  would  agree  to  treat  his  sanctuary,  or  the 
ground  set  apart  for  his  worship,  as  holy  ground,  even 
when  at  war  with  one  another,  and  to  join  in  defending 
it  from  all  harm.  Solemn  festivals  would  be  held  at 
regulai  times,  in  which  all  the  tribes  concerned  might 
take  part  \  and  deputies  from  these  tribes  would  meet 
to  see  that  the  temple  and  its  lands  were  properly 
looked  after,  and  suffering  no  harm.  Gradually,  from 
acting  in  agreement  in  what  concerned  the  temple,  a 
set  of  tribes  would  make  agreements  about  other  mat- 
ters, for  instance  not  to  do  certain  cruel  things  when 
at  war  with  one  another  :  and  at  last  they  might  make  a 
treaty  of  perpetual  peace,  and  undertake  to  defend  one 
another  against  all  enemies.  They  would'bind  them- 
selves to  this  treaty  by  taking  an  oath  before  the  god 
whom  they  all  worshipped.  This  is  how  the  earliest 
unions  of  States  arose.  In  such  a  union  there  was 
generally  one  State  stronger  than  the  rest;  this  State 
was  said  to  have  the  hegemony,  that  is,  the  leadership 
(yyefiovia)  of  the  league.  Therefore  as  the  earliest 
leagues  had  arisen  out  of  religious  unions,  and  were 
founded  upon  the  oath  taken  before  the  god,  the  later 
Greeks,  whenever  they  made  a  league,  established 
a  common  worship  or  festival,  in  which  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  league  joined  (p.  75). 

14.  Delphic  Amphictyony.  —  One  great  re- 
ligious union  existed  in  the  north  of  Greece  in 
early  times.  Twelve  tribes  united  to  worship  Apollo 
at  Delphi  (map,  p.  19),  and  to  protect  his  temple 
there ;  and  deputies  from  all  of  them  met  twice 
a  year  to  settle  matters  that  had  to  do  with  the 
temple.     This  union,  which  was    called  the  Delphic 


18  DELPHIC  ORACLE.  [chap. 

Amphictyony,  did  not  grow  into  an  actual  league,  and 
the  tribes  continued  to  make  war  on  one  another ; 
but  they  took  an  oath  not  to  do  two  things  when 
at  war,  namely,  not  to  destroy  one  another's  towns, 
and  not  to  cut  off  running  water  from  a  town  when 
besieged.  The  meeting  of  the  deputies  was  called 
the  Amphictyonic  Council,  that  is,  the  Council  of  the 
neighbours  (uficpiKTiovte). 

15.  Delphic  Oracle. — The  temple  at  Delphi, 
from  being  the  common  sanctuary  of  these  twelve 
tribes,  and  one  of  the  meeting-places  of  the  Amphic- 
tyonic Council,  became  the  most  important  temple 
in  Greece.  Oracles  were  given  there,  that  is,  pre- 
tended answers  of  the  god  Apollo  to  those  who  came 
to  consult  him.  The  managers  of  the  temple  were- 
very  skilful  men ;  they  found  out  what  was  going  on 
in  distant  places,  and  often  gave  very  good  advice 
in  the  oracles.  The  fame  of  the  temple  was  carried 
over  all  Greece,  and  into  foreign  lands.  In  early 
times  the  priests  seem  to  have  done  good  to  Greece 
by  spreading  ideas  of  justice  and  goodness  in  the 
name  of  the  god,  and  by  making  the  scattered  Greek 
States  feel  that  they  were  one  nation,  and  that  there 
was  one  divine  law  which  they  must  all  obey.  As, 
however,  the  priests  gave  oracles  upon  the  struggles 
between  States,  and  on  questions  of  war  and  govern- 
ment, powerful  men  who  wished  for  the  support  of  the 
oracle  began  to  bribe  the  priests  to  take  their  side. 
Thus  the  oracle  lost  credit :  and  in  the  Persian  wars, 
of  which  we  shall  presently  read,  it  damaged  itself 
still  more  by  disheartening  the  Greeks  instead  of  en- 
couraging them  to  make  a  bold  resistance. 

CHAPTER   II. 

PELOPONNNESUS     DOWN     TO     B.C.    500.— COLONIES. 

1.  Dorians  and  old  Population. — The  con- 
quest of  Peloponnesus  must  have  been  made  little  by 
little,  for  there  were  many  strong  places,  and  the 
Dorians  were  very  few  in  number  compared  with  the 


•I.] 


DORIANS  A  AD  OLD  POPULA  TION. 


19 


people  in  the  land.  The  Dorians  divided  themselves 
into  bands;  and  each  band  became  a  little  independ- 
ent State.  They  did  not  destroy  the  inhabitants  of 
the  districts  where  they  settled,  but  treated  them  as 
an  inferior  people,  and  allowed  them  no  share  in   the 


SOUTHERN   GREECE. 


government.  In  Sparta  the  ancient  inhabitants  never 
gained  power  again,  but  in  most  of  their  settlements 
the  Dorians  were  not  able  to  keep  everything  in  their 
own  hands  for  very  long.  We  shall  see  in  this  chapter 
how  the  Dorians  and  the  conquered  people  dealt  with 
one  another  in  the  different  States, 


20  PERICEKI  AND  HELOTS*  [chap. 

2.  Sparta. — One  Dorian  band  took  possession  of 
the  town  of  I  acedaemon,  or  Sparta,  with  its  corn  fields 
(owaprrj,  sparte,  sown  land,  from  Gird^ai),  at  the  foot 
of  Mount  Taygetus,  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Eurotas, 
twenty  miles  from  its  mouth.  They  were  like  a  little 
army  in  an  enemy's  country7.  All  around  them  was 
the  old  Achrean  population.  If  they  wanted  more 
land,  they  couk]  only  gain  it  by  righting.  Little  bj 
little  they  pushed  their  border  forward.  They  attacked 
and  conquered  their  neighbours,  both  Dorian  and 
Achaean,  one  after  another,  until  they  had  won  the 
country  on  both  sides  of  the  Eurotas  as  far  as  the  sra. 
The  best  of  the  land  they  took  to  themselves  ;  the  rest 
they  left  to  its  old  owners. 

3.  Periceki  and  Helots. — The  conquered  popu- 
lation was  divided  into  two  classes  —  Periceki  (vtpwiKot, 
dwellcrs-around),  the  old  inhabitants,  who  were  allowed 
to  keep  their  farms,  and  Helots  (e7\amc,  perhaps 
from  e'Xto,  take  prisoner),  serfs  employed  to  till  the 
lands  of  the  Spartans.  The  Perioeki  had  to  serve  as 
soldiers  with  the  Spartans,  without  being  allowed  any 
voice  in  the  government ;  they  were  dealt  with  as 
inferiors,  so  that  marriage  was  forbidden  between 
Spartans  and  Periceki;  but  they  kept  their  property 
and  were  not  ill  treated.  The  lot  of  the  Helots  was 
far  worse.  A  certain  number  of  Helot  families  had 
to  live  on  each  of  the  farms  which  the  Spartans  had 
seized  ;  they  were  not  allowed  to  go  away,  or  to 
choose  their  own  occupations,  but  had  to  cultivate 
the  land  and  to  take  a  fixed  quantity  of  corn  and 
wine  and  oil  every  year  to  Sparta  to  the  owner  of 
the  farm.  What  the  farm  produced  above  this  they 
were  allowed  to  keep.  They  were  not,  however, 
quite  like  ordinary  slaves,  for  they  might  not  be 
sold  or  removed  from  the  land.  Now  this  was  the 
condition  of  a  great  part  of  the  English  nation  in 
early  times,  and  of  a  great  part  of  the  Russians  till 
very  lately;  but  the  Helots  were  not  content  in 
their  oppression,  like  a  people  who  had  never  been 


II.]  LA  WS  OF  L  YKURGUS.  ?.\ 

anything  but  serfs ;  they  knew  that  they  had  been  a 
free  people  until  the  coming  of  the  Spartans,  and  that 
they  were  as  good  Greeks  as  their  masters.  They  bore 
such  hatred  to  the  Spartans  that  it  was  said  a  Helot 
would  gladly  eat  a  Spartan  raw.  The  Spartans  were 
in  constant  fear  of  a  revolt  of  the  Helots ;  and  a  band 
of  young  Spartans  was  employed  to  keep  a  watch 
upon  them,  and  secretly  murder  those  who  seemed 
bravest  and  most  dangerous. 

4.  Spartans  a  body  of  Soldiers.  —  The 
Dorians,  when  they  conquered  Peloponnesus,  lived 
like  a  band  of  soldiers;  and  though  in  most  of  their 
settlements  they  tool-  to  more  peaceable  ways  and  to 
city  life,  in  Sparta  they  were  so  placed  that  they  had 
to  keep  to  their  soldierly  habits,  and  make  them  ever, 
more  severe.  While  in  other  parts  of  Peloponnesus 
men  took  to  peaceful  occupations,  the  Spartans  were 
in  constant  warfare.  They  lived  like  an  army  on  duty. 
They  could  only  conquer  their  neighbours,  and  be 
safe  against  the  Helots,  by  being  always  ready  to 
tight.  In  the  States  upon  the  coast  the  old  in- 
habitants gained  riches  by  trading,  and  after  a  time 
the  rule  of  the  Dorians  was  broken  down  :  but  at 
Sparta,  far  inland,  there  was  no  commerce,  and  the 
Spartan?  were  resolved  to  remain  absolute  masters  of 
the  othe'  inhabitants  of  the  country,  though  they  were 
not  a  tenth  part  of  their  number.  Therefore  they 
thought  only  of  making  themselves  as  strong  a  body 
of  soldiers  as  possible.  Their  town  was  not  a  place 
of  business  like  other  Greek  towns  :  to  the  last  it 
remained  like  a  large  village,  without  fine  buildings ; 
and  it  was  too  securely  placed  to  need  a  wall.  The 
laws  and  customs  of  Sparta,  which  were  said  to  have 
been  made  by  Lykurgus,  turned  the  whole  life  of  the 
Spartans  into  a  preparation  for  war.  No  child  was 
allowed  to  be  reared  who  was  not  strong  and  health) 
in  body.  At  the  age  of  seven,  boys  were  taken  from 
their  families  and  trained  by  state  officers.  They  had 
to  practice  gymnastics  and  the  use  of  arms,  and  to  go 


12  SPARTAN  CONSTITUTION.  [chap. 

through  every  exercise  that  a  soldier  would  go  through 
in  actual  warfare.  They  learnt  to  bear  all  sorts  of 
hardships  without  complaining  ;  they  were  kept  short 
of  food  in  order  to  encourage  them  to  hunt  on  the 
mountains ;  and  sometimes  they  were  flogged  almost 
to  death  before  the  altars  of  the  gods.  Learning  and 
knowledge  did  not  exist  in  those  days  ;  and  when  they 
began  the  Spartans  did  not  care  for  them.  But  the 
boys  were  not  brought  up  as  mere  savages ;  they  were 
taught  a  simple  warlike  kind  of  music  and  poetry. 
Thus  during  their  boyhood  the  Spartans  were  trained 
like  soldiers  ;  and  when  they  grew  up  to  be  men 
their  life  was  just  as  hard.  Instead  of  living  at  home 
with  their  wives,  they  had  to  drill  every  day,  and  to 
dine  together  at  the  public  mess,  and  to  sleep  in 
barracks.  Fifteen  men  dined  at  each  table ;  the 
dinner  was  very  coarse  and  poor,  the  chief  dish  being 
black  barley-broth.  Even  the  women  were  made  to 
practise  gymnastics.  The  women  had  much  of  the 
high  spirit  of  the  men,  and  were  treated  with  more 
respect  than  in  any  other  Greek  State.  They  loved 
brave  men  and  hated  cowards ;  and  a  Spartan  mother 
would  rather  hear  that  her  son  was  dead  than  that  he 
had  run  away  from  battle.  No  Spartan  was  allowed  to 
trade  ;  and,  as  their  farms  were  cultivated  by  Helots, 
they  had  nothing  to  do  with  agriculture,  and  could 
give  their  whole  lives  up  to  military  exercises.  In 
order  to  prevent  trade  with  foreigners,  the  Spartans 
had  iron  money,  which  was  of  no  use  in  other  States. 
5.  Government — Kings,  Senate,  Ephors.— 
Almost  everywhere  else  in  Greece  government  by 
kings  came  to  an  end,  and  the  nobles  ruled ;  but 
at  Sparta,  which  disliked  all  change,  kings  continued. 
There  were  always  two  Spartan  kings  together,  and 
this  prevented  their  being  too  powerful.  The  council 
of  chiefs  which  we  read  of  in  Homer  was  preserved  in 
Sparta  as  a  Senate  of  twenty-eight  old  men,  all  past 
sixty,  called  Gerusia  (from  yquw,  old  man) :  and,  just 
as  in  Homer  the  common  people  meet  in  the  market- 


II.]  ARGOS.  23 

place  to  hear  what  the  king  will  say,  so  at  Sparta  the 
whole  assembly  of  citizens  had  to  meet  in  order  to  pass 
a  law.  But  the  magistrates  alone  might  speak  \  the 
citizens  had  only  to  vote  yes  or  no,  and  had  really 
very  little  to  do  with  the  management  of  the  State. 
So  far  the  forms  of  government  at  Sparta  were  like 
what  we  see  in  Homer,  except  that  there  were  two 
kings.  But  in  the  course  of  time  new  magistrates 
arose,  called  Ephors  (tfatfim,  overseers),  who  soon 
nlade  themselves  the  rtal  governors  of  the  State. 
The  Ephors  were  elected  by  the  assembly,  and  con- 
trolled all  Spartans,  and  even  the  kings.  They  trans- 
acted business  with  other  States,  and  proposed  all  laws. 
They  had  not  to  account  to  anyone  for  what  they  had 
done,  and  therefore  there  was  a  greater  secrecy  in  the 
government  of  Sparta  than  anywhere  else  in  Greece. 

6.  Argos. — Sparta  was  not  at  first  the  strongest 
of  the  Dorian  States.  In  the  old  Achaean  times  the 
greatest  king  had  been  the  king  of  Mykenae  in  the 
north-east  of  Peloponnesus;  and  now,  though  Mykenae 
declined,  the  neighbouring  town  of  Argos  was  at  first 
the  strongest  Dorian  state  in  Peloponnesus.  There 
were  many  other  Dorian  settlements  in  the  north-east, 
such  as  Corinth  and  Sikyon  ;  these  were  all  in  alliance 
with  Argos,  and  united  in  worshipping  Apollo,  as  the 
god  of  the  league.  They  sent  offerings  every  year  to 
a  temple  of  Apollo,  which  stood  at  Argos ;  and  ac- 
knowledged Argos  to  be  the  head  of  the  league  (p.  17). 
Argos  had  also  a  large  territory  of  its  own,  extending 
far  southwards  along  the  east  coast.  When,  therefore, 
the  Spartans  went  on  conquering  eastwards,  they  came 
into  conflict  with  the  Argives,  and  from  that  time 
Sparta  and  Argos  were  rivals  and  enemies.  The 
Argives  were  driven  out  of  their  southern  territory, 
and  then  out  of  the  border  district  called  Kynuria,  so 
that  Sparta  had  now  all  the  country  between  Mount 
Taygetus  and  the  eastern  sea.  This  is  the  country 
called  Laconia  (Aoucwfirj?).  At  the  same  time  the 
authority  of  Argos  over  its  allies  declined,  and  Sparta 


24  OL  YMPIAN  GAMES  [chap. 

began  to  rank  instead  of  Argos  as  the  first  State  in 
the  Peloponnesus. 

7.  Olympian  Festival. — In  the  west  of  Pelopon- 
nesus there  was  an  ancient  sanctuary  of  Zeus  at 
Olympia,  on  the  river  Alpheus.  Eighteen  towns  united 
to  offer  sacrifice  there,  and  a  great  lestival  was  held 
once  in  four  years.  The  towns  of  Elis  and  Pisa  dis- 
puted for  the  management  of  the  festival :  Sparta  took 
the  part  of  Elis,  and  gave  Elis  the  management.  Now 
this  was  something  more  than  a  common  alliance 
between  two  States ;  for  the  Spartans  wished  to 
make  the  Olympian  festival  a  great  religious  gathering 
for  the  whole  of  Greece,  in  order  that  Sparta,  as  the 
protector  of  the  festival,  might  be  acknowledged  the 
leading  State  in  Greece.  Everything  was  done  to 
make  the  festival  as  attractive  as  possible.  Races  and 
athletic  sports  were  established,  at  which  all  Greeks 
might  compete ;  and  heralds  were  sent  all  over 
Greece  announcing  when  the  festival  was  to  be  held, 
and  inviting  all  Greeks  to  contend  in  the  games 
(ay&veg).  At  first  there  was  only  a  foot-race  :  boxing 
and  wrestling  matches  and  other  trials  of  strength  were 
afterwards  added,  as  well  as  horse  races  and  chariot- 
races.  After  a  time  the  roads  through  other  States 
that  led  towards  Olympia  were  protected  for  some 
days  before  and  after  the  festival,  in  order  that 
people  might  go  and  return  in  safety  ;  and  at  last 
the  whole  month  of  the  festival  was  observed  as  a 
time  of  peace  all  over  Greece.  Thus  the  Olympian 
games,  and  the  rules  connected  with  them,  helped  to 
make  the  Greeks  feel  that  they  were  a  single  nation, 
although  they  were  so  many  independent  States.  It 
became  the  custom  for  every  State  to  send  deputies 
to  represent  it  at  the  games,  and  to  present  its  offering 
to  the  god;  and  each  State  was  anxious  that  its  deputies 
should  make  a  more  magnificent  show  than  those  of 
the  others.  Thousands  of  Greeks  came  as  spectators; 
the  plain  of  Olympia  during  the  games  was  like  a 
great  camp.     The  winners  were  the  happiest  men  in 


fT.]  MESSENIA.  25 

Greece.  Though  their  only  prize  was  a  crown  of 
wild  olive,  it  was  the  greatest  distinction  that  a  Greek 
could  gain.  The  most  powerful  princes  sought  to 
make  a  figure  at  the  games,  and  every  State  took  pride 
in  the  victory  of  one  of  its  citizens.  There  were  three 
other  festivals  in  Greece  of  the  same  kind,  but  the 
Olympian  was  the  greatest. 

8.  Sparta  conquers  Messenia. — Immediately 
west  of  the  Spartans  were  the  Messenians,  a  hardy 
Doric  race  like  themselves.  Two  long  and  desperate 
wars  were  waged  before  Messenia  was  subdued  (b.c. 
750 — 650).  Argos,  Arkadia  and  Sikyon,  fearing  that 
Sparta  meant  to  conquer  them  all  in  turn,  sent  help  to 
Messenia  ;  Corinth  and  Elis  assisted  Sparta.  Thus 
nearly  the  whole  of  Peloponnesus  fought  on  one  side 
or  the  other.  The  spirit  of  the  Spartans  was  failing, 
when  an  Athenian  poet  named  Tyriaeus  came  among 
them  and  stirred  their  hearts  with  his  songs.  War- 
like songs  and  dances  were  part  of  the  training  of  the 
Spartans  ;  they  did  not  read  their  new  poems  quietly 
in  a  book,  as  we  do,  but  sang  them  in  troops  before 
the  tent  of  the  king,  and  on  the  march  to  battle. 
The  Spartans  persevered  ;  the  brave  resistance  of  the 
Messenians  was  of  no  avail,  and  they  became  a  con- 
quered people.  The  best  of  their  land  was  taken  by 
the  Spartans ;  on  the  rest  they  had  to  live  not  as 
Periceki  but  as  Helots.  Yet  in  their  oppression  the 
Messenians  never  ceased  to  feel  that  they  were  a 
distinct  nation.  Three  hundred  years  later  a  Theban 
general,  Epaminondas,  who  had  overthrown  the  power 
of  Sparta,  proclaimed  to  the  Messenians  that  they  were 
again  a  free  people.  A  city  was  built,  and  Mes>enia 
again  ranked  among  the  Grecian  States  (b.c.  369). 
Put  for  these  three  hundred  years  Messenia  had  no 
share  in  all  that  was  done  by  Greece. 

9.  Tegea.  — Having  conquered  Messenia,  Sparta 
now  possessed  the  southern  part  of  Peloponnesus 
from  sea  to  sea.  It  next  attacked  the  States  on  the 
southern  border  of  Arkadia.     But  here  the  Spartans 


26  OLIGARCHIES.  [chap. 

found  a  country  and  a  race  that  they  could  hot 
subdue.  The  citizens  of  Tegea  destroyed  and  cap- 
tured their  armies,  and  made  the  Spartan  prisoners 
labour  as  slaves  in  the  fields  in  the  chains  which  they 
had  brought  for  the  Tegeans.  All  hope  of  conquer- 
ing  Arkadia  was  given  up :  Sparta  gladly  accepted 
the  Tegeans  as  her  allies  (about  b.c.  560),  and  the 
Tegeans  were  willing  to  acknowledge  Sparta  as  the 
head  of  Peloponnesus,  and  to  follow  her  as  their 
leader.  At  the  sources  of  the  river  Alpheus  a  pillar 
was  set  up  with  the  words  of  the  treaty  cut  upon  it. 
Tegea  remained  true  to  Sparta  ;  and  its  soldiers,  who 
had  made  the  Spartans  feel  their  courage,  were  allowed 
to  serve  on  the  left  wing,  a  place  of  honour,  in  the 
army  of  Sparta  and  her  allies. 

10.  North-east  Peloponnesus.  Oligarchies. 
— Let  us  now  turn  to  the  States  in  the  north-east 
corner  of  Peloponnesus,  namely  Sikyon,  Corinth,  and 
Megara.  In  all  of  these,  as  at  Sparta,  there  was  a 
body  of  Dorians  living  in  the  midst  of  the  old  popu- 
lation ;  but  they  had  abolished  kingly  rule,  and  the 
government  belonged  to  the  noble  families.  The 
name  the  Greeks  gave  to  this  kind  of  government 
was  Oligarchy  ox  Government  by  the  Few  (6\iyoi,  a/>x'))» 
In  almost  every  State  of  Greece  except  Sparta  the 
power  of  the  kings  grew  less  and  less,  and  the 
noble  families  took  more  of  the  management  of  affairs 
into  their  own  hands,  till  at  last  they  put  an  end  to 
kingly  government  altogether.  These  families,  or 
clans,  were  supposed  to  be  the  descendants  of  the 
heroes  :  they  were  separated,  like  a  sacred  race,  from 
ihe  mass  of  the  people  :  they  had  worships  of  their 
own  in  which  the  commons  had  no  share  (p.  16)  ; 
and  they  alone  knew  the  laws,  which  were  not 
written,  but  handed  down,  as  a  kind  of  sacred  know- 
ledge, by  word  of  mouth.  They  did  not  feel  them- 
selves fellow-citizens  of  one  State  with  the  common 
people,  but  considered  that  they  made  ud  the  State 
by   themselves,  and   did  not   acknowledge  that   any 


CI.]  SIKYON.  27 

one  outside  their  body  had  any  rights  at  all.  As  a 
rule  they  owned  good  estates,  while  ihe  common  people 
either  worked  upon  little  farms  of  their  own,  or  made 
their  living  as  labourers,  or  by  trade.  Sometimes  the 
nobles  lived  in  a  distinct  district  by  themselves. 

11.  Sikyon. — This  was  the  case  at  Sikyon;  the 
Dorian  nobles  lived  on  the  slope  of  the  hills,  while 
the  common  people  lived  in  the  plain,  along  the 
banks  of  the  river  Asopus,  and  on  the  sea-shore  at 
its  mouth.  The  nobles  called  them  ALgialtans,  or 
men  of  the  shore,  and  did  not  at  first  allow  them  to 
serve  as  soldiers  or  to  act  as  citizens  in  any  way.  But 
after  a  time,  being  in  great  need  of  soldiers,  they 
made  the  ^Egialeans  serve,  arming  them  with  clubs, 
while  they  themselves  had  swords  and  lances.  But 
wrhile  the  Dorian  nobles  were  living  on  the  produce  of 
their  lands,  the  yEgialeans  were  growing  rich  by  trade 
and  industry;  and  about  the  year  B.C.  676,  a  rich 
/Egialean,  named  Orthagoras,  put  himself  at  the  head 
of  the  common  people,  and  overthrew  the  government 
of  the  nobles.  Orthagoras  made  himself  master  of 
the  whole  State,  and  governed  it  like  a  king,  handing 
over  his  power  to  his  son  after  him.  The  descendants 
of  Orthagoras,  called  the  Orthagorida?,  were  rulers  of 
Sikyon  for  a  hundred  years.  They  took  the  part  of 
the  common  people,  and  abolished  all  the  privileges 
of  the  Dorians.  Thus  the  power  of  the  Dorian 
nobles  in  Sikyon  came  to  an  end,  and  Sikyon  was  no 
longer  an  Oligarchy,  but  governed  by  a  single  man. 

12.  Meaning  of  Tyrannus. — Sovereigns  like 
Orthagoras  and  his  descendants  were  not,  however, 
called  kings  (ficunXeic),  but  tyrants  (Tvpavvoi).  The 
Greek  word  rvpawoq  does  not  mean  a  ruler  who 
governs  tyrannically  in  our  sense,  but  a  ruler  whose 
power  is  above  the  laivs  and  contrary  to  the  laws. 
Thus  Pheidon,  a  king  of  Argos,  is  said  to  have 
made  himself  Tvparvoq — that  is,  he  made  himself  an 
absolute  king,  when  by  the  law  and  custom  of  Argos 
the   king's  power  was  limited.      A  king   of  Persia, 


28  CORINTH.  [chap. 

however  tyrannically  he  might  govern,  would  not  be 
called  TVfiuivog — for  the  law  and  custom  of  Persia 
was  that  the  king's  power  should  be  almost  absolute, 
that  is,  that  he  might  do  almost  anything  he  chose. 
On  the  other  hand  the  Orthagoridae  were  all  rvpuwtn, 
however  wisely  and  mildly  they  might  govern,  because 
their  power  was  not  in  accordance  with  the  law  of 
Sikyon.  Therefore,  when  we  use  the  word  tyrant  for 
rvpawoQy  we  must  remember  that  we  are  not  using  it 
in  the  ordinary  English  sense. 

13.  First  Sacred  War. — One  of  the  Tyrants  of 
Sikyon,  named  Kleisthenes,  was  anxious  to  gain  the 
favour  of  the  Oracle  of  Delphi,  and  joined  with  Athens 
and  some  other  States  in  a  war  on  its  behalf.  The 
men  of  Krisa,  which  lies  between  Delphi  and  the 
sea,  tried  to  make  everyone  pay  a  tax  who  passed 
through  their  town  on  his  way  to  Delphi.  Kleisthenes 
and  the  allies  therefore  made  war  on  Krisa  and  de- 
stroyed it,  and  declared  the  land  of  the  Krisseans 
sacred  to  the  god,  so  that  no  one  might  ever  again 
build  upon  it.  This  war  is  called  the  First  Sacred  War, 
and  it  lasted  ten  years,  from  b.c.  595  to  B.C.  585. 

14.  Corinth. — At  Corinth  governments  followed 
in  the  same  order  as  at  Sikyon, — Kings,  Oligarchy, 
Tyrants.  When  the  kings  ended,  the  State  was 
governed  by  two  hundred  noble  families  called  the 
Bacchiadae.  Corinth  from  its  position  on  the  isthmus 
was  the  greatest  trading-town  in  Greece.  The  roads 
from  all  parts  of  Greece  met  there,  and  the  Corin 
thians  made  a  tramway  across  the  isthmus,  over 
which  ships,  which  were  little  more  than  boats  in 
those  "days,  were  carried  from  one  sea  to  the  other, 
in  order  to  save  the  dangerous  voyage  round  Cape 
Malea.  Thus  trade  of  all  kinds  came  to  Corinth 
Ships  were  built  there  to  suit  the  tramway,  and  sold 
to  strangers,  so  that  Corinth  became  the  great  ship- 
building town  of  Greeee.  The  first  artificial  harbour 
of  Greece  was  formed  at  Lechseum,  the  north  port 
of   Corinth ;    docks  were   made   round   it,    and   the 


II,]  KYPSELUS.  29 

Corinthians  made  one  improvement  after  another  in 
their  ships,  till  at  last  they  invented  the  Ti'ireme 
(rpns,  ifjeTfjLov)9  a  vessel  with  three  sets  of  oars  one 
above  the  other,  which  became  the  regular  Greek 
ship  of  war.  Everything  tended  to  make  the  Corin- 
thians a  seafaring  people ;  and  when  troubles  arose 
under  the  government  of  the  Bacchiadae,  young  nobles 
who  were  dangerous  and  discontented  at  home  were 
encouraged  to  lead  out  colonies  beyond  the  sea,  where 
they  would  be  able  to  take  the  lead.  The  greatest  of 
these  colonies  were  Kerkyra,  now  Corfu,  off  the  coast 
of  Eplrus,  and  Syracuse  in  Sicily.     (Map,  p.  34.) 

15.  Kypselus  overthrows  the  Bacchiadae. — 
But  though  the  Bacchiadse  wisely  encouraged  the  trade 
of  Corinth,  and  got  rid  of  dangerous  men  by  means  of 
colonies,  they  could  not  preserve  their  power.  They 
had  become  few  in  number;  they  were  hated  by  the 
people;  and  there  were  other  Dorian  families  as 
noble  as  the  Bacchiadae,  whom  they  kept  out  from  any 
share  in  the  government.  One  of  these  nobles  mar- 
ried a  daughter  of  a  Bacchiad,  whom  no  Bacchiad 
would  marry  because  she  was  lame.  Their  son,  Kyp- 
selus had  to  take  the  rank  not  of  his  mother  but  of 
his  father.  Despised  by  the  Bacchiadae,  Kypselus 
gained  the  favour  of  the  people,  and  made  himself 
master  of  the  city.  The  oligarchy  was  destroyed  ;  Kyp- 
selus reigned  as  Tyrant  for  thirty  years  (b.c.  655 — 625) 
and  left  the  government  to  his  son  Periander. 

16?  Periander. — Periander,  now  forty  years  old, 
had  studied  the  ways  of  the  despotic  kings  of  Asia, 
and  was  thought  to  have  gained  such  skill  and  craft  in 
ruling  as  no  Greek  had  ever  yet  possessed.  He  was 
one  of  the  " Seven  Wise  Men''  and  many  clever  Greek 
sayings  about  rulers  and  their  subjects  were  quoted  as 
his.  Periander  intended  to  be  a  king  in  a  pearance 
as  well  as  in  reality.  His  father  Kypselus  had  lived 
like  one  of  the  citizens  among  the  people:  Peri- 
ander on  the  contrary  built  a  palace  on  the  top  of 
die  great  citadel  of  Corinth,  and  surrounded  himself 


50  PERIANDER.  [ch\p. 

with  soldiers  and  with  a  court  like  an  eastern 
monarch.  He  would  allow  no  one  to  be  powerful 
in  the  State  but  himself.  If  any  Corinthian  had  great 
wealth,  Periander  made  him  give  up  a  part  of  it ; 
and  out  of  the  money  he  thus  took  he  made  splendid 
gifts  to  the  gods.  Periander  loved  poets  and  artists ; 
poets  lived  at  his  court,  and  his  offerings  to  the  gods 
were  noble  works  of  art.  He  founded  Colonies,  and 
extended  the  power  of  Corinth  far  along  the  coast 
between  Kerkyra  and  the  mouth  of  the  Corinthian 
Gulf.  The  trade  of  Corinth  was  so  great  that  no 
taxes  were  needed  beyond  the  harbour-dues.  But  in 
all  his  splendour  Periander  lived  in  dread  of  the  spirit 
of  liberty.  The  common  people  and  traders,  who 
had  always  been  in  subjection  to  kings  or  oligarchies, 
had  no  dislike  to  a  despot :  it  was  in  the  families 
which  had  hitherto  ruled  that  the  spirit  of  liberty  was 
strong.  Therefore  Periander  forbade  all  meetings  in 
which  men  of  high  birth  might  stir  up  one  another 
with  the  thought  of  freedom.  He  abolished  the  public 
dinners  which  had  come  down  from  old  Dorian  times, 
and  the  meeting  of  youths  in  the  gymnasia  j  and  he 
tried  to  make  the  citizens  distrust  one  another,  and 
live  wholly  with  their  wives  and  children.  He  wished 
that  the  people  over  whom  he  ruled  should  be  his 
submissive  servants,  like  the  nations  of  the  east 
(p.  9),  not  knowing  that  uncontrolled  power  turns 
a  man  into  a  savage,  and  that  the  despot  becomes 
the  most  passionate  and  miserable  of  mankind.  He 
grew  cruel  and  suspicious.  In  a  fit  of  anger  he 
killed  his  wife,  Melissa,  whom  he  loved  :  then,  seized 
with  remorse,  he  made  all  the  women  in  Corinth 
burn  their  robes  in  one  great  pile,  as  an  offering 
to  the  dead.  His  two  sons,  who  did  not  know 
how  their  mother  had  died,  were  staying  with  their 
grandfather,  the  father  of  Melissa.  When  the  time 
came  to  depart,  the  old  man  took  them  aside  and 
asked  them  if  they  knew  the  murderer  of  their  mother. 
The    elder  was   dull,  and   thought   no    more  of  it ; 


II.]  MEGARA.  31 

but  the  younger,  Lykophron,  sought  what  it  meant, 
and  found  that  it  was  his  father.  When  they  re- 
turned to  Corinth,  Lykophron  would  not  speak  to 
his  father,  nor  salute  him.  Periander  drove  him 
angrily  from  the  palace ;  and  when  he  found  out 
what  was  in  Lykophron's  mind,  he  forbade  the  citizens 
to  take  him  into  their  houses,  or  to  speak  to  him,  or 
give  him  food.  For  days  Lykophron  wandered  silent 
and  starving  through  the  public  places  :  then,  when 
Periander  thought  his  spirit  must  be  broken,  he 
approached  him,  and  bade  him  come  back  to  the 
palace.  But  Lykophron  only  answered  scornfully 
that  Periander  had  broken  his  own  law  by  speaking 
to  him.  His  father  now  sent  him  away  to  Kerkyra, 
and  there  he  remained,  as  if  forgotten,  for  many  years. 
But  when  old  age  came  upon  Periander,  and  he  knew 
that  his  eldest  son  was  not  fit  to  succeed  him,  he  sent 
his  daughter  to  Kerkyra,  to  persuade  Lykophron  to 
come  home  as  his  heir.  Lykophron  told  his  sister 
that  he  would  never  come  to  Corinth  as  long  as  his 
father  lived.  Then  Periander,  in  despair,  offered  to 
retire  to  Kerkyra  if  Lykophron  would  reign  at  Corinth. 
But  when  the  Kerkyraeans  heard  of  this,  they  feared 
the  coming  of  the  old  tyrant,  and  seized  and  killed 
Lykophron.  Thus  Periander's  last  hopes  were  de- 
stroyed. He  took  fierce  vengeance  on  the  Kerkyraeans, 
and  then  died  himself,  having  reigned  forty  years 
(b.c.  625—585). 

17.  Megara. — In  Megara,  about  B.C.  620,  Thea- 
genes  made  himself  tyrant,  and  abolished  the  distinction 
between  the  Dorians  and  the  rest  of  the  population. 
He  was,  however,  driven  out,  and  violent  conflicts 
followed  between  the  nobles  and  the  commons. 

18.  The  good  and  evil  of  the  Tyrants. — In  a 
gteat  number  of  other  States  tyrants  arose  about  the 
same  time.  They  began  in  the  Ionic  cities  in  Asia 
Minor,  where  men  were  acquainted  with  the  absolute 
governments  of  eastern  countries  ;  and  the  reason 
whv  tyrants  arose  in  so  many  different  places,  was, 


$2  TYRANTS.  [CHAP. 

that  in  all  these  places  alike  the  noble  families  pos- 
sessed all  the  rights  in  the  State,  and  the  common 
people  possessed  none.  The  tyrants  gained  their 
power  by  taking  up  the  cause  of  the  commons  ;  and 
they  did  good  in  so  far  as  they  broke  down  that 
narrow  system  under  which  the  few  noble  families 
made  up  the  whole  State  by  themselves,  and  the 
common  people  were  treated  as  something  outside 
the  State.  Till  now  the  great  religious  ceremonies 
had  belonged  only  to  the  noble  families ;  the  com 
mons  could  take  no  share  in  them,  and  felt  that  they 
were  not  like  a  part  of  the  State.  The  tyrants,  on 
the  other  hand,  made  new  and  splendid  festivals  for 
the  whole  people ;  and,  though  the  old  families 
preserved  and  took  great  pride  in  their  own  special 
rites,  the  new  worships  helped  to  make  the  nobles  and 
the  commons  feel  that  they  were  fellow-citizens  of  the 
same  State.  Thus  when  the  tyrants  came  to  an  end, 
and  the  citizens  took  things  into  their  own  hands,  the 
distinction  between  the  noble  families  and  the  com- 
mons had  become  somewhat  less,  and  they  had  a 
better  idea  of  the  State  as  something  that  included 
them  all.  The  tyrants  also  did  good  to  Greece  by 
their  encouragement  of  poetry  and  art.  At  their 
festivals  a  multitude  of  men  heard  new  kinds  of 
poetry  and  music,  which  could  not  spread  themselves 
as  poetry  and  music  do  now  by  means  of  printing. 
At  the  court  of  a  great  prince  like  Periander  the 
cleverest  men  of  all  kinds  were  collected  from  all 
parts  of  Greece,  so  that  whatever  was  best  and  newest 
everywhere  became  known  to  all,  and  all  could  profii 
by  it.  In  general  the  first  of  each  line  of  tyrants  was 
a  good  ruler,  and  his  successors  far  inferior  to  him 
The  man  who  raised  himself  to  power,  like  Kypselus 
or  Orthagoras,  was  able  to  do  so  because  some  one 
was  needed  to  stand  up  for  the  people  and  break 
down  the  privileges  of  the  nobles.  He  gained  his 
power  by  doing  a  great  work  in  the  State,  and  the 
people  put  confidence  in  him.     But  his  successors  did 


L]  SPARTA  AXD  THE  TYRANTS.  33 

rot  come  to  the  throne  by  anything  they  had  done 
themselves.  They  were  born  princes,  and  often  their 
only  desire  was  to  increase  their  own  power.  The 
nobles  hated  and  plotted  against  them.  Then,  feel- 
ing their  danger,  and  corrupted  by  power,  the  tyrants 
often  became  mere  cruel  oppressors,  and  tried  to  crush 
out  all  spirit  and  manliness.  The  common  people 
did  not  as  yet  mind  being  ruled  by  a  despot,  for  they 
had  never  had  any  share  of  the  government  under 
the  oligarchies,  and  therefore  had  not  yet  come,  as 
they  afterwards  did  in  many  cities,  to  value  liberty 
and  hate  slavery. 

19.  Sparta  and  the  Tyrants. — The  action  of  the 
Peloponnesian  tyrants  was  hateful  to  Sparta.  They 
had  broken  down  the  rule  of  the  Dorians  in  their 
States,  and  raised  the  ancient  population.  Sparta 
feared  that  the  same  thing  might  be  attempted  in  her 
own  dominions;  and  therefore  she  put  down  tyrants, 
both  in  Peloponnesus  and  elsewhere,  when  a  chance 
offered.  Among  others  the  nephew  of  Periander  was 
driven  out  by  Sparta.  Spaita  was  now  acknowledged 
as  the  leading  State  in  Greece  ;  most  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesian cities  were  her  allies,  and  sent  troops  when 
summoned,  the  Spartan  kings  acting  as  commanders 
of  the  united  army. 

20.  Colonies. — During  the  period  of  the  oli- 
garchies and  the  tyrannies,  owing  to  the  discontent 
and  poverty  at  home,  bodies  of  men  emigrated  from 
many  of  the  Greek  cities,  and  founded  new  cities, 
called  Colonies  (aWu«<),  in  different  parts  of  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  and  on  the  coast  of  the  Black 
Sea.  These  colonies  were  often  placed  at  spots  where 
a  trade  had  already  begun  with  the  natives,  and 
were  always  on  the  coast,  or  but  a  short  distance  in- 
land. From  the  beginning  the  colonies  had  greater 
freedom  than  the  cities  at  home;  and  as  they  often 
had  a  more  fertile  territory  or  a  better  trade  than  was 
to  be  had  in  Greece,  many  of  them  became  far  richer 
and  more  powerful  than  the  cities  by  which  they  had 


MAP  OF  7  HE  COLONIES.  |chai 


THE   GREEK   COLONIES- 


n.]  COLONIES.  35 

been  founded,  A  colony .  was  not  subject  to  its 
mother-city,  but  paid  it  certain  honours  and  kept  up 
a  friendly  feeling,  especially  through  the  worship  ot 
the  same  gods.  The  colonies  spread  over  the  coast  of 
South-West  Italy  and  Sicily ;  and  as  the  Greeks  came 
to  trade  more  and  more  in  the  east  part  of  the  Medi- 
terranean, they  drove  out  the  Phoenician  traders,  who 
had  at  first  had  all  the  trade  to  themselves  (p.  10), 
The  Phoenicians  could  not  resist  the  Greeks  in  these 
waters,  but  they  resolved  to  keep  the  trade  of  the  west 
part  of  the  Mediterranean  in  their  own  hands,  and  not 
to  let  the  Greeks  take  that  also  from  them.  There- 
fore the  Phoenicians  founded  the  warlike  colony  of 
Karthageon  the  African  coast;  and  the  Karthaginians, 
in  alliance  with  the  Etruscans  of  Italy,  prevented  the 
Greeks  from  settling  in  the  west  corner  of  Sicily  or  in 
Corsica,  and  from  making  any  important  settlements 
on  the  coast  of  Spain.  If  the  spread  of  the  Greek 
colonies  had  not  thus  been  checked  by  the  rise  of 
Karthage,  nearly  the  whole  coast  of  the  Mediterranean 
might  have  become  Greek.  As  it  was,  the  coast  of 
Sicily,  except  in  the  west  corner,  became  like  a  Greek 
country,  the  greatest  of  the  colonies  being  Syracuse 
(p.  29)  and  Agrigentum.  There  was  frequent  war 
between  the  Sicilian  Greeks  and  the  Karthaginians. 
The  coast  of  the  south-western  part  of  Italy  was 
called  Magna  Grsecia,  from  the  number  and  import- 
ance of  the  Greek  colonies  there.  They  were 
scattered  along  this  coast  at  intervals  from  Kuma?. 
to  Tarentum,  and  throve  by  agriculture,  trade,  or 
fisheries.  North  of  Kumae,  and  on  the  east  coast 
of  Italy,  there  were  no  settlements.  On  thse  south 
coast  oi  Gaul  (France),  Massilia  (Marseillen)  was 
a  Greek  colony,  with  others  of  less  importance :  on 
the  African  coast  opposite  Greece,  Kyrene  ;  and  in 
Egypt,  Naukratis.  Along  the  south  coast  of  the 
Black  Sea  there  was  a  line  of  colonies  founded  by 
Miletus  ;  and  on  its  west  coast  they  stretched  as 
far  north  as  the    Crimea,  among  savage  neighbours, 


36  SLAVERY.  [chaf 

and  in  a  country  where  the  winters  are  exceedingly 
cold.  The  prosperity  of  the  Black  Sea  colonies 
depended  on  the  corn  trade,  which  is  still  the  great 
trade  of  that  district. 

In  most  places  where  the  Greeks  settled,  the  natives 
of  the  country  round  them  gradually  gave  up  their 
own  ways  and  began  to  live  like  Greeks,  just  as  in 
places  where  the  English  settle  the  people  begin  to 
learn  English  habits  and  the  English  language.  This 
was  especially  the  case  in  South  Italy  and  in  Sicily, 
where  the  natives  were  akin  to  the  Greeks  by  race. 
About  B.C.  400,  though  the  coast  of  Italy  was  chiefly 
Greek,  the  native  Sikels  in  the  interior  were  quite  a 
distinct  people  :  but  in  B.C.  70  the  whole  island  had 
become  Greek ;  there  was  not  a  word  except  Greek 
to  be  heard  anywhere. 

21.  Slavery. — In  the  Homeric  times  there  were 
not  very  many  slaves :  but  as  the  Greeks  grew  more 
rich,  and  took  more  and  more  to  living  in  cities,  the 
number  of  slaves  increased,  and  the  citizens  came  to 
depend  more  on  slave-labour.  It  became  a  common 
thing  for  the  citizen  to  live  in  the  town  and  leave  the  cul- 
tivation of  his  farm  entirely  to  his  slaves.  Traders  and 
merchants  also  employed  slaves  in  their  business,  and 
there  were  great  differences  in  the  position  of  slaves. 
A  slave  might  be  employed  as  the  clerk  or  secretary 
of  his  master,  and  be  more  like  his  friend  than  his 
servant ;  or  he  might  be  treated  as  if  he  were  a  mere 
brute  beast,  and  ma  ie  to  pass  his  life  pulling  at  an 
oar.  In  reading  the  history  of  Greece  we  must  bear 
in  mind  that  we  are  reading  the  history  of  the  masters 
only,  not  of  the  slaves  :  and  that  all  the  greatness 
and  interest  of  Greek  life  belonged  only  to  a  part 
of  the  population.  There  was  another  part — the 
slave-population — whose  history,  if  it  existed,  would 
perhaps  be  too  full  of  misery  and  suffering  lor  us 
to  bear  to  read  it 


til.]  ATHENE  37 

CHAPTER  III. 

ATTICA    TO     B.C.    500. 

1.  Kings  abolished  at  Athens. — The  inhabit- 
ants of  Attica  (map,  p.  19)  belonged  to  the  Ionian  branch 
of  the  Greeks  (p.  14).  There  were  originally  several 
States  in  Attica,  independent,  and  often  at  war  with 
one  another.  Athens  was  the  strongest  of  these:  it  did 
not,  however,  turn  the  inhabitants  of  the  other  States 
into  its  subjects,  as  Sparta  did  in  Laconia,  but  united 
with  them,  so  that  Attica  became  a  single  State,  and 
the  noble  families  of  the  other  States  became  nobles 
of  Athens.  This  probably  took  place  while  Athens  was 
still  governed  by  kings,  and  the  Athenians  believed  it  to 
be  the  work  of  their  hero  Theseus.  The  kingly  power 
was  abolished  very  gradually.  At  first  the  nobles  took 
away  the  priestly  office  of  the  king  (p.  11),  and  called 
him  Arc/ion  (fy>x<0|')j  Ruler,  instead  of  Basileus  {king), 
which  meant  Ruler  and  Priest  together ;  but  the  office 
of  ArcJwn  was  held  for  life,  and  son  succeeded  father. 
Next  they  determined  that  the  Archonship  should  be 
held  only  for  ten  years  ;  and  at  last,  in  B.C.  683,  it  was 
made  a  yearly  office,  and  nine  archons  were  made 
instead  of  one,  so  that  there  might  be  different  men 
to  judge  and  to  command  the  army,  instead  of  one 
man  having  all  kinds  of  power. 

2.  Noble  Clans. — The  people  of  Attica  were 
divided  into  three  classes,  the  Eupatridce  or  nobles, 
Geomori,  or  farmers,  and  Demiurgi,  or  workmen. 
The  Eupatridae  were  like  a  distinct  race  by  them- 
selves, although  they  were  not  foreign  conquerors 
like  the  Dorians  in  the  Peloponnesian  States.  They 
were  clans  supposed  to  be  descended  from  heroes ; 
they  had  the  management  of  the  sacred  ceremonies, 
and  kept  the  entire  government  of  the  State  in  their 
own  hands.  Some  of  the  clans  were  more  distin- 
guished than  the  rest,  and  the  greatest  families  in 
these  took  the  lead  in  State  affairs.  When  the  history 
of  Attica  btg.us,  the  common  people  had  no  share  in 


38  ALKM^ONID^E.  [chap 

the  government.  We  shall  see  how  the  clans  came  to 
be  thought  of  less  importance,  and  the  Athenians  gained 
a  better  idea  of  what  a  State  and  its  citizens  ought  to  be 

3.  Laws  of  Draco. — One  of  trie  afflictions  of 
the  common  people  was  that  justice  was  not  done  by 
the  judges.  There  were  no  written  lawsV  The  nobles 
handed  down  precepts  of  law  to  one  anofherJ}y  word 
of  mouth  ;  but  the  people  complained  that  the 
archons,  who  were  always  nobles,  gave  judgment  ac- 
cording to  their  own  pleasure,  and  favoured  their 
friends.  It  was  therefore  agreed  that  a  citizen  named 
Draco  should  draw  up  a  Code  of  Laws,  in  order  that 
everybody  might  know  what  the  law  was  (b.c.  624). 
Draco  did  not  make  new  laws,  but  ascertained  the 
lules  which  the  judges  commonly  went  by,  and  wrote 
them  down.  The  punishments  in  Draco's  code 
seemed  so  severe  to  the  later  Greeks,  that  the  word 
Draconian  was  used  to  express  anything  very  strict  or 
unmerciful ;  but  in  reality  the  punishments  in  all 
early  laws  are  very  severe  (compare  Matt.  v.  38),  and 
Draco's  were  not  severer  than  others. 

4.  Kylon.  The  curse  of  the  Alkmaeonidap, 
Soon  after  this,  one  of  the  nobles  named  Kylon 
tried  to  make  himself  tyrant  (b.c.  612).  Expecting 
that  the  common  people  would  join  him  in  over- 
throwing the  Eupatridae,  he  seized  upon  the  Acro- 
polis, the  citadel  of  Athens.  But  the  people  gave 
him  no  help,  and  the  government  surrounded  the 
Acropolis  with  troops.  Kylon  himself  escaped  ;  and 
his  followers,  when  they  were  nearly  dead  with  hunger, 
took  refuge  at  the  altars  of  the  gods,  which  were  on 
the  Acropolis.  The  archon  Megaklcs,  who  com- 
manded the  troops,  promised  them  their  lives  if  they 
would  come  away  :  but  when  they  had  left  the  altars 
his  soldiers  slaughtered  them.  This  was  a  most  impious 
crime  against  the  gods,  and  the  Athenians  believed 
that  a  curse  would  fall  upon  their  city.  They  called 
for  vengeance  upon  the  whole  clan  of  Megakles,  the 
Alkmseonidaa,  who  were  thought  to  be  all  polluted  by 


III.]  SOLON  SAVES,  THE  DEBTORS.  39 

his  guilt.  For  years  the  nobles  contended  amongst 
themselves  whether  they  should  give  up  the  Alk- 
maeonidae,  or  not;  and  the  common  people  grew 
more  and  more  violent  against  the  government  of 
the  nobles.  At  length  the  Alkmaeonidae  were  per- 
suaded by  Solon,  a  wise  Eupatrid,  to  submit  to  trial. 
They  were  found  guilty  of  sacrilege,  and  banished 
from  the  city. 

5.  Solon  saves  the  Debtors. — Solon  was  now 
greatly  trusted,  both  by  the  nobles  and  the  people. 
The  nobles  saw  that  if  something  were  not  done  to 
relieve  the  distress  and  bankruptcy  of  the  common 
people,  a  tyrant  would  arise  (p.  32);  and  therefor: 
they  gave  Solon  authority  to  carry  out  whatever 
measures  he  thought  best.  The  great  misery  of  the 
people  was  debt.  The  farmers  had  borrowed  mone) 
at  very  high  interest  from  the  wealthy,  giving  their 
farms  in  pledge  for  the  payment  of  the  debt.  At 
the  boundaries  of  every  farm  so  mortgaged,  pillars 
were  set  up  as  a  witness,  with  the  amount  of  the 
debt  and  the  name  of  the  lender  cut  upon  them.  The 
debt  grew  greater  and  greater  every  year  from  the 
heavy  interest  j  the  farmer  lost  all  hope  of  ever  being 
able  to  pay,  and  was  now  only  like  a  labourer  on  the 
farm  which  had  once  been  really  his  own.  The  debtor 
who  had  no  farm,  and  who  could  not  pay  his  debt, 
was  in  still  worse  case,  for  he  became  the  actual 
slave  of  his  creditor,  and  might  be  sold  (comp. 
2  Kings  iv.  1  ;  Nehemiah  v.  3 — 5).  Thus  the  free 
farmers,  the  Geomori,  were  disappearing  altogether. 
Some  were  sold  abroad  as  slaves,  others  wrere  working 
at  home  as  serfs,  or  struggling  in  miserable  poverty. 
To  save  the  State,  Solon  was  compelled  to  take  very 
strong  measures.  He  ordered  that  the  common  silver 
coins,  called  drachma,  should  be  made  of  lighter  weight, 
so  that  100  new  ones  should  be  worth  only  73  old 
ones,  and  that  the  new  drachmae  should  be  accepted 
as  if  they  were  equal  to  the  old  ones,  in  payment  of 
debts.     Thus,  a  man  who  owed   100  old  drachma? 


*o  SOLON'S  CONSTITUTION.  [ciiaa 

would  pay  it  by  too  new  drachmae,  which  were  worth 
only  73  old  ones,  and  would  really  have  his  debt  re- 
duced by  27.  Farmers  who  owed  money  to  the  State 
were  freed  from  their  debt  altogether,  and  made  a 
fresh  start.  Many  persons  who  had  been  sold  abroad 
as  slaves  were  brought  back  and  set  free ;  and  Solon 
ordered  that  from  henceforth  no  Athenian  should  be 
made  the  slave  of  another  for  debt  (comp.  Nehe- 
miah  v.  6 — 13).  These  measures  did  great  good  to 
the  farmers ;  and  Solon's  poems  tell  us  how  the 
mortgage-pillars  disappeared  irom  the  country. 

6.  Constitution  of  Solon.  Timocracy. — 
Solon  was  also  given  authority  to  make  a  new  consti- 
tution and  new  laws  for  the  State.  Till  now  the  noble 
clans  had  been  everything.  It  was  Solon  who  first 
made  Athens  a  State  in  which  a  man  might  take  a  part 
as  citizen  without  belonging  to  one  of  those  clans. 
The  ancient  Homeric  assembly  of  all  the  people 
(p.  12)  had  perhaps  never  died  out  in  Athens,  but  it 
had  never  gained  any  authority.  Solon  first  made  this 
assembly  (t^Xr/cr/a)  a  real  part  of  the  State.  He  secured 
to  it  the  election  of  the  archons,  the  right  of  passing  laws , 
and  the  right  of  calling  magistrates  to  account  for  what 
they  had  done  while  in  office.  Every  free-born  native 
of  Attica  had  a  vote  in  tne  assembly,  whether  he  be- 
longed to  one  of  the  clans  or  not.  But  Solon  did 
not  intend  that  anyone  who  chose  should  get  up  in 
the  assembly  and  propose  a  law  :  he  established  a 
council  (fifjvXij)  of  400  to  prepare  the  business  that  was 
to  come  before  the  assembly,  and  nothing  was  to  be 
proposed  in  the  assembly  that  had  not  been  agreed 
to  by  the  council.  The  councillors  (ftovXtvral)  were 
to  be  elected  yearly  by  the  people. 

Solon  also  made  a  new  division  of  the  citizens, 
distinct  from  the  old  clan  divisions.  He  divided  all 
the  natives  of  Attica  into  four  classes,  according  to 
the  amount  of  land  which  they  possessed.  To  the 
richer  classes  he  gave  the  greatest  share  in  the 
government,    but    he    also    required    them    to   pay 


ni.j  AREOPAGUS.  41 

heavier  taxes,  and  to  do  more  service  for  the  State. 
Men  of  the  first  or  richest  class  alone  could  hold  the 
archonship  ;  and  thus  the  rich  Eupatridae,  who  best 
understood  government,  would  still  be  at  the  head  of 
the  State.  The  lowest  class  could  not  be  members  of 
the  council  or  hold  any  office  ;  they  had  only  their 
votes  in  the  assembly.  They  paid  no  taxes  ;  and,  when 
they  were  called  out  as  soldiers  (p.  15),  they  had  not 
to  lind  themselves  arms,  whereas  the  first  three  classes 
had  to  provide  themselves  with  a  full  suit  of  armour, 
or  to  serve  as  cavalry-men  on  horses  of  their  own.  A 
constitution  which,  like  Solon's,  gives  power  in  pro- 
portion to  weath,  is  called  a  Timocrcay  (r^ofc^ana, 
rt/x>),  rating,  Kparoc,  power).  Hitherto  birth  alone  could 
give  a  man  power  in  Athens :  now,  though  the  greatest 
part  of  the  first  class  would  no  doubt  be  Eupatridae, 
any  Athenian  who  possessed  a  good  estate  might  hold 
the  highest  offices  ;  and  the  whole  people,  though 
they  did  not  actually  take  part  in  the  government,  had 
some  control  over  it  through  their  electing  the  archons 
and  calling  them  to  account. 

7.  Areopagus. — There  was  a  very  ancient  assem- 
bly of  nobles  which  met  on  the  hill  Areopagus,  and  was 
itself  called  the  Areopagus.  It  had  originally  judged  in 
cases  of  murder.  Solon  gave  it  more  power,  and  arranged 
that  the  archons  of  every  year,  if  approved  by  the  Areo- 
pagus, should  become  members  of  the  Areopagus  for 
the  rest  of  their  lives.  Thus  the  Areopagus  would 
be  composed  of  the  most  experienced  men  among  the 
nobles.  Solon  gave  it  the  right  to  forbid  any  law 
to  be  passed  which  it  should  think  dangerous  to  the 
State,  and  the  right  to  warn  or  punish  citizens  who  lived 
in  a  manner  unbecoming  Athenians,  or  who  brought  up 
their  children  badly.  The  Areopagus  did  not  take  any- 
regular  part  in  the  government,  but  was  held  in  great 
reverence,  and  was  the  pride  of  the  Eupatridae.1 

1  The  meeting  on  the  Areopagus  before  which  St.  Paul  spoke 
was  probably  a  mere  gathering  of  citizens  with  no  authority. 
(Actsxvii.) 


42  SOLON'S  LAWS.  [chap. 

8.  Solon's  Laws. — Solon  was  also  charged  to 
draw  up  a  new  code  of  laws  for  Athens  in  the  place  of 
those  of  Draco.  In  all  countries  in  very  early  times 
the  family  or  the  clan  had  an  authority  over  their 
members  which  now  belongs  only  to  the  Law  of  the 
State.  The  father  had  great  power  over  his  children, 
and  could  even  put  them  to  death  (comp.  Deu- 
teronomy xxi.  1 8)  j  and  the  property  of  those  who 
had  no  children  went  to  their  clan  when  they  died. 
Now  Solon  thought  that  the  life  and  liberty  of  chil- 
dren ought  not  to  depend  on  the  will  of  their  fathers, 
and  that  the  clan  ought  not  to  have  any  claim  on 
a  man's  property  at  his  death.  Therefore  he  made 
a  law  that  the  father  should  not  sell  or  pawn  his 
children,  and  that  people  without  children  should 
have  the  right  to  leave  their  property  at  their  death 
to  whom  they  chose.  The  son  was  obliged  to  support 
his  father  in  old  age,  but  not  unless  his  father  had 
given  him  an  education.  Solon  required  all  citizens 
to  take  an  active  part  in  protecting  the  State  from 
mischief,  as  there  was  no  army  or  police  to  do  so 
(p.  15) ;  and  therefore  he  punished  any  citizen  who, 
when  troubles  arose,  should  not  resolutely  take  one 
side  or  the  other.  Solon  ended  his  work  by  pardon- 
ing all  who  had  brought  themselves  into  disgrace 
during  the  late  troubles ;  and  the  Alkmaeonidae  returned 
•to  Athens  (b.c.  594).  \ 

~/~"  9.  Nomothetae.  —  The  evils  which  existed  in 
Athens  were  common  in  other  Greek  States  ;  and  in 
many  of  them,  just  as  in  Athens,  power  was  given  to 
a  single  man  to  draw  up  an  entirely  new  set  of  Laws, 
which  should  set  the  citizens  free  from  their  oppres- 
sion and  discontent,  and  enable  them  to  live  together 
in  concord.  These  men  were  called  Nomotlutce.  (vopo- 
dtrat),  Legislators ;  and  some  of  them  performed  their 
task  with  great  wisdom  and  success,  and  really  gave  a 
new  life  to  their  States.  More  is  known,  however, 
about  the  laws  of  Solon  than  about  the  laws  of  any 
of  the  other  Nomotheicz. 


Hi.]  PIS /STRATUS.  43 

10.  Factions.  Pisistratus  Tyrant. — In  spite 
cf  Solon's  great  improvements,  troubles  continued 
in  Attica.  The  most  powerful  of  the  nobles  were  at 
enmity  ;  and,  as  Attica  was  a  large  district  for  a  single 
State,  the  inhabitants  of  different  parts  of  it  were  easily 
stirred  up  against  one  another.  There  were  three 
parties, — the  men  of  the  plains,  the  men  of  the  coast, 
and  the  men  of  the  mountains.  The  last  were  the 
poorest  and  most  dissatisfied ;  and  the  cleverest  of  the 
nobles,  Pisistratus,  put  himself  at  their  head.  The 
leader  of  the  men  of  the  coast  was  Megakles,  an 
Alkma^onid,  the  grandson  of  the  Megakles  who  had 
killecl  Kylon's  followers.  One  market-day,  when  the 
town  was  full  of  poor  country-people,  Pisistratus 
smeared  himself  with  blood,  and  drove  into  the 
market-place,  declaring  that  he  had  been  almost  killed 
by  his  enemies  on  account  of  his  zeal  for  the  people. 
A  friend,  with  whom  Pisistratus  had  arranged  the 
whole  plan,  proposed  to  the  people  that  they  should 
give  Pisistratus  a  guard  of  fifty  men,  armed  with 
clubs.  Solon  in  vain  warned  the  people  against  it ; 
the  guard  was  given,  and  gradually  increased  to  400. 
Then,  when  Pisistratus  felt  sure  of  his  power,  he 
seized  the  Acropolis,  and  made  himself  tyrant  (b.c. 
560).  He  was  twice  driven  out  by  the  parties  of  the 
coast  and  the  plain;  but  in  B.C.  545  he  made  himself 
tyrant  for  the  third  time,  and  thenceforth  reigned 
in  peace  till  his  death  (b.c.  527).  Though  he  sur- 
rounded himself  with  a  foreign  guard,  he  governed 
very  gently,  and  allowed  Solon's  constitution  to 
remain  in  force,  only  providing  that  the  highest 
offices  should  be  held  by  men  of  his  own  family. 
He  established  religious  festivals  in  which  all  the 
people  could  join  :  he  beautified  Athens  with  temples 
and  public  buildings ;  he  improved  the  roads,  and 
laid  on  water  by  an  aqueduct.  He  also  brought  living 
poets  to  Athens,  and  collected  copies  of  the  older 
poetry  from  all  parts  of  Greece,  employing  learned 
men  10  clear  it  from  mistakes  and  confusions. 


14  HARMODIUS  AND  ARISTOGITOiV.       [chap 

ii.  Hippias  and  Hipparchus. — After  the  death 
of  Pisistratus  (b.c.  527),  his  eldest  son  Hippias  suc- 
ceeded him,  and  governed  mildly:  but  in  B.C..  514 
Hipparchus,  the  brother  of  Hippias,  affronted  the 
sister  of  a  young  citizen,  named  Harmodius,  and  Har 
modius,  with  his  friend  Aristoglton,  determined  to 
kill  both  the  tyrant  and  his  brother.  They  succeeded 
in  killing  Hipparchus,  but  Hippias  saved  himself  by 
presence  of  mind,  and  Harmodius  and  Aristogiton 
perished.  After  this  Hippias  became  suspicious  and 
cruel,  killing  and  ill-treating  the  citizens. 

12.  End  of  the  Tyranny. — Since  the  return  of 
Pisistratus  in  b.c.  545  the  Alkmseonidse  had  been  in 
exile.  Being  very  wealthy,  and  wishing  to  clear 
themselves  from  their  bad  name  by  an  act  of  piety, 
they  undertook  for  a  certain  sum  to  rebuild  the 
temple  of  Delphi,  which  had  been  burnt  down . 
and  though  the  agreement  was  only  for  common 
stone,  they  faced  the  temple  with  fine  marble.  This 
gained  them  the  favour  of  the  oracle  ;  and  as  the} 
knew  that  so  long  as  the  family  of  Pisistratus  reigned 
they  would  never  be  allowed  to  return  to  Athens,  they 
bribed  the  priestess  of  Delphi,  whenever  the  Spartans 
should  send  to  consult  the  oracle,  to  make  only  this 
answer,  "  Athens  must  be  freed."  The  Spartans, 
finding  that,  whatever  they  asked,  the  god  would  give 
them  no  other  advice,  determined  to  do  as  he  bade 
them.  They  sent  an  army  to  turn  out  Hippias ;  and 
when  this  was  defeated  they  sent  another  under  Kleo- 
menes,  king  of  Sparta.  The  children  of  Hippias  fell 
into  the  hands  of  Kleomenes,  and  in  order  to  recover 
them,  Hippias  agreed  to  leave  Attica.  This  was  the 
end  of  the  tyranny  of  the  Pisistratidae  (b.c.  510). 
The  Athenians  remembered  the  last  four  cruel  yean 
of  Hippias  with  horror,  and  paid  honours  to  the  me- 
mory of  Harmodius  and  Aristogiton,  as  if  it  had  been 
they  who  had  freed  the  city. 

T3.  Constitution  of  Kleisthenes.  Demo- 
cracy.— Now  that  Hippias  was  gone,  the  struggle  oi 


til.]  KLEISTHENES.  45 

parties  began  afresh.     Many  of  the  nobles,  undei  :he 

lead  of  Isagoras,  wished  to  restore  the  old  government  

of  the  nobles,  as  it  had  been  before  Solon;  the  Alkmae- 
onidae,  headed  by  Kleisthenes,  the  son  of  Megakles, 
took  the  opposite  side.  This  Kleisthenes  was  named 
after  Kleisthenes,  the  Tyrant  of  Sikyon,  whose  daughter 
Megakles  had  married.  It  was  he  who  had  bribed 
the  priestess  of  Delphi ;  and  now,  whether  out  of  am- 
bition or  real  love  for  Athens,  he  took  up  the  cause  of 
the  common  people,  and  gave  them  more  to  do  with 
the  government. 

14.  Tribes  and  Demes. — There  was  an  ancient 
division  of  the  people  into  four  tribes,  called  the 
Ionic  Tribes.  Kleisthenes  abolished  this  division,  be-  / 
cause  it  made  the  common  people  look  up  to  the 
nobles  of  their  tribe ;  and  instead  of  having  the 
people  divided  according  to  birth,  he  divided  the 
land  into  a  great  number  of  districts  or  parishes, 
called  Demes  ffijioi),  and  then  made  ten  new  tribes 
by  putting  into  a  single  tribe  the  inhabitants  of 
several  Demes  at  a  distance  from  one  another. 
Thus  one  of  the  new  tribes  would  not  be  anything 
like  a  clan  :  the  people  in  it  would  come  from  dif 
fere  nt  parts  of  Attica,  and  would  not  be  related  to  one 
another  by  birth  ;  and  the  members  of  a  single  clan 
would  be  in  many  different  tribes.  Kleisthenes  hoped 
by  this  means  to  prevent  the  great  nobles  from  raising 
parties  to  support  them,  and  also  to  put  an  end  to  the 
division  of  the  country  into  districts  like  those  of 
the  plain,  the  coast,  and  the  mountain. 

15  Council. — In  Solon's  constitution,  the  council 
of  400  was  composed  of  100  from  each  of  the  four  old  \ 
Jonic  tribes :  Kleisthenes  had  the  council  to  be  elected 
by  his  ten  new  tribes,  50  from  each,  making  500 
councillors  in  all.  He  did  not  interfere  with  Solon's 
division  into  classes  according  to  property,  or  with  the 
privileges  of  the  richer  classes  ;  but  when  he  made  his 
division  into  Demes,  he  included  among  the  citizens 
every  man  then  living  in  Attica,  except  slaves,  whether 


\6  STRATEGI,  JURIES,  OSTRAKISM.       [chap. 

born  of  Attic  parents  or  not.  Thus  a  number  of 
traders  and  settlers,  called  aliens  (juetoikol)  received 
Athenian  citizenship  ;  and  the  people  felt  more  than 
before  that  they  had  a  real  share  in  the  State.  The 
members  of  each  clan  still  kept  up  their  religious 
ceremonies,  and  a  feeling  of  pride  in  their  clan  ;  but 
for  all  purposes  of  government  the  people  acted  to 
gether  in  their  Demes  and  new  tribes. 

1 6.  Assembly. --Kleisthenes  wished  the  public  as- 
sembly ^KKXrjfTia)  to  take  a  greater  part  in  the  govern- 
ment than  it  had  under  Solon  :  and  since  no  measure 
could  be  introduced  in  the  assembly  that  had  not 
been  drawn  up  by  the  council,  Kleisthenes  had  to 
make  the  council  a  more  business-like  body  than 
it  had  hitherto  been.  As  it  is  impossible  that  500 
people  can  transact  business  methodically  all  together 
he  divided  the  council  into  committees  (npvTcivtiQ) 
Each  committee  was  composed  of  the  men  elected  by 
one  of  the  new  tribes,  so  that  no  great  nobleman 
could  hope  to  get  a  committee  filled  with  his  clans- 
men. The  council  and  the  assembly  now  began  to 
take  an  increasing  part  in  the  government. 

17.  Strategi.— A  new  and  important  office  was 
created  in  connection  with  the  tribes  Each  of  the 
ten  tribes  was  to  choose  a  Strategus,  or  General 
(trrpctTrjyos;),  and  the  Ten  Generals  were  to  hold  com- 
mand of  the  army  in  turn,  each  for  a  day.  One  of  the 
archons,  called  the  Polemarchus  (iroXEfjoc,  war,  &px*r)t 
commanded  with  them.  By  degrees  the  Strategi  gained  - 
the  management  of  the  foreign  affairs  of  the  State.        ^ 

18.  Juries. — About  the  same  time  the  assembh 
was  divided  into  courts  or  juries,  in  order  that  the 
chief  cases  might  be  tried  before  a  jury  of  citizens 
instead  of  being  decided  by  the  archons  or  the  Areo- 
pagus as  before. 

19.  Ostrakism. — Kleisthenes  saw  that  all  over 
Greece  ambitious  men  had  been  able  to  make  them 
selves  tyrants  because  the  States  had  no  armies  01 
police  ready  to  defend  the  constitution  (p.  15);  and 


ai.l  L01t  47 

he  feared  that  a  tyrant  might  rise  again  in  Athens. 
Therefore  he  established  a  custom  called  ostrakism, 
by  which  the  citizens  might  get  rid  of  a  man  whom 
they  thought  likely  to  make  himself  tyrant,  or  to 
throw  the  State  again  into  violent  struggles.  First  of 
all  the  council  and  the  assembly  had  to  decide  that 
the  State  really  was  in  danger;  then  the  citizens 
were  summoned  to  meet  on  a  certain  day,  and  to 
write  each  upon  a  ticket  (oarpaKov)  the  name  of 
any  person  whom  he  thought  dangerous  to  the  State. 
If  the  same  name  was  written  on  6,000  tickets,  that 
person  had  to  go  into  exile  for  ten  years  ;  but  he 
did  not  lose  his  property,  and  he  might  return  with 
all  his  rights  as  a  citizen  at  the  end  of  the  ten  years. 

20.  Lot. — Another  device  was  made  either  at  this 
time  or  soon  afterwards  to  prevent  ambitious  men 
from  raising  parties  in  the  State,  and  to  give  a  better 
chance  to  less  powerful  men.  When  the  candidates 
for  the  archonship  had  given  in  their  names,  instead 
of  the  people  voting  which  of  those  who  had  given 
in  their  names  should  be  archons,  they  cast  lots 
(ttXrjpog).  Thus  the  most  that  an  ambitious  man  could 
do  would  be  to  put  down  his  name  as  a  candidate : 
voting  being  abolished,  it  would  be  of  no  use  for  him  to 
collect  a  party  to  support  him.  The  most  important 
officers  of  all,  however,  the  Strategi,  were  never 
chosen  by  lot;  for  great  mischief  might  have  happened 
if  the  lot  had  fallen  on  a  man  unfit  to  be  general. 

21.  Spartans  interfere. — The  changes  of  Kleis- 
thenes  gave  the  people  great  power ;  and  the  consti 
tution  of  Athens  now  began  to  be  a  Democracy,  or 
Government  of  the  People  (^o^arm,  <%oc,  people, 
KpdroQ,  power),  instead  of  a  Timocracy  (p.  40).  Many 
of  the  nobles,  headed  by  Isagoras,  opposed  Kleis- 
thenes  as  strongly  as  they  could ;  and  when  Isagoras 
found  that  he  could  not  resist  the  reforms  of  Kleis- 
thenes,  he  applied  to  Kleomenes,  king  of  Sparta, 
for  help,  saying  that  Kleisthenes  was  about  to  make 
himself  tyrant,  and  that  he  would  be  the  enemy  of  the 


*8  KLEOMENES.  [cha? 

Dorians,  like  his  grandfather,  Kleisthenes  of  Sikyon 
(P-  33)'  Kleomenes  was  a  very  ambitious  king, 
and  wished  that  Sparta  should  exercise  control  ovei 
Athens  ;  therefore,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  Kleisthenes, 
he  summoned  the  Athenians  to  expel  the  Alkmae- 
onidae,  the  clan  of  Kleisthenes,  on  account  of  their 
curse  (p.  38).  Kleisthenes  at  once  left  Athens;  and 
Kleomenes  marched  into  Athens  with  a  small  force, 
and  expelled  700  families  whom  Isagoras  pointed 
out  to  him  as  democraticaL  He  then  tried  to  dissolve 
the  council  of  500.  But  the  whole  people  rose  in 
arms.  The  troops  of  Kleomenes  were  overpowered 
and  driven  into  the  citadel.  The  Athenians  allowed 
them  to  retire  unhurt,  but  put  to  death  the  citizens 
who  had  joined  them.  Kleomenes  now  summoned 
the  Peloponnesian  allies  of  Sparta,  and  invaded  Attica, 
determining  to  make  Isagoras  tyrant,  because  Isagoras 
was  willing  to  subject  Athens  to  Sparta.  He  did  not 
tell  the  allies  what  his  purpose  was  ;  but  when  they 
reached  Eleusis  in  Attica,  the  allies  discovered  it, 
and  refused  to  go  any  further,  so  that  the  army  broke 
up.  Kleomenes  had  also  persuaded  the  Thebans  and 
the  citizens  of  Chalkis,  in  Eubcea,  to  declare  war  on 
Athens.  When  the  Athenians  saw  the  army  of  Kleo- 
menes break  up,  they  marched  against  the  Thebans, 
and  found  them  on  the  shore  of  Euripus  (map,  p.  19) 
waiting  for  the  Chalkidians.  The  Athenians  attacked 
and  defeated  the  Theban  army,  and  the  moment  the 
battle  was  over  they  crossed  the  Euripus,  and  won  so 
complete  a  victory  over  the  Chalkidians  on  the  same 
day,  that  the  whole  state  of  Chalkis  was  at  their  mercy. 
They  took  the  land  of  the  Chalkidian  nobles,  and 
settled  4,000  Athenian  farmers  upon  it.  The  Spartans 
were  now  more  jealous  then  ever  of  Athens.  They 
discovered  that  the  priestess  of  Delphi  had  been 
bribed  to  make  them  expel  Hippias,  and  they  deter- 
mined to  humble  Athens  and  restore  Hippias.  But 
after  what  had  happened  in  the  last  campaign  they 
dared  not  conceal  their  object  from  the  allies.    There- 


IV.]  IONIC  COLONIES.  49 

fore  they  summoned  deputies  from  all  parts  of  Pelo- 
ponnesus, and  tried  to  persuade  them  to  join  in 
restoring  Hippias.  But  the  Corinthian  deputy  Sosikles 
reproached  the  Spartans,  who  had  always  been  the 
enemies  of  tyrants,  with  the  change  in  their  conduct, 
and  reminded  them  of  what  Corinth  had  suffered  from 
Periander.  The  assembly  applauded  Sosikles :  the 
Spartans  saw  that  they  could  do  nothing,  and  gave  up 
the  business. 

Thus  the  Athenians  had  upheld  their  liberties  and 
gained  two  brilliant  victories  over  the  Thebans  and 
the  Chalkidians  who  would  have  helped  to  restore  the 
tyranny.  The  spirit  of  the  citizens  rose  high.  The 
changes  of  Kleisthenes  had  abated  the  rivalries  of  the 
rich,  and  the  poor  saw  that  they  had  a  share  in  the 
State,  and  felt  no  wish  to  have  the  tyrants  back. 
Athens  was  more  at  one  with  herself  than  she  had 
ever  been  before.  In  the  coming  Persian  wars  the 
Athenians  held  together  in  spite  of  traitors  ;  and  both 
rich  and  poor  did  their  duty  when  the  time  came. 

CHAPTER    IV. 

THE     IONIC     REVOLT    AND     PERSIAN    WARS 

i.  The  IonicColonies  conquered  by  Lydia. — 

The  Greek  colonies  in  Asia  Minor  were  all  coast 
towns,  and  did  not  try  to  conquer  the  interior  of  the 
country.  Nor  did  the  kings  of  the  inland  countries, 
such  as  Phrygia  and  Lydia  (map,  p.  10),  at  first  attack 
the  Greek  settlers,  but  allowed  them  to  keep  possession 
of  the  coast  in  peace ;  and  they  grew  rich  and  pros- 
perous long  before  the  cities  of  European  Greece 
(p.  33).  The  most  important  colonies  were  the  Ionic. 
They  were  twelve  independent  cities  ;  and  though  they 
had  a  common  religious  festival,  and  felt  themselves 
to  be  a  distinct  body  from  the  Dorians  and  ^Eolians, 
they  did  not  act  together  ;  nor  had  any  city  such  a 
leadership  among  them  as  Sparta  had  in  Peloponnesus. 
So  long  as  no  powerful  enemy  attacked  them,  the 
[onians  did  not  feel  the  evils  of  their  disunion :    but 


50  LYDIA,  [chap, 

about  the  year  B.C.  720  a  new  line  of  kings  arose 
in  Lydia,  who  determined  to  make  Lydia  a  great 
empire,  and  to  conquer  all  the  coast.  These  kings 
made  war  upon  the  Ionian  cities  one  after  another; 
and  at  last,  about  B.C.  550,  King  Croesus  made  him- 
self master  of  them  all.  But  Croesus  had  no  wish  to 
injure  or  destroy  any  Greek  city.  He  wished  only  to 
make  them  a  part  of  his  empire.  The  Lydian  kings 
had  come  to  understand  and  like  the  ways  of  the 
Greeks ;  they  consulted  the  Greek  oracles  and  sent 
presents  to  the  temples,  and,  even  when  at  war,  they 
respected  the  holy  places  of  the  Greeks.  Croesus 
only  required  the  cities  to  pay  him  a  moderate  tribute, 
and  to  acknowledge  him  as  sovereign ;  in  all  other 
respects  he  allowed  them  to  manage  their  own  affairs. 
He  was  fond  of  everything  Greek;  he  welcomed  Greek 
artists  and  travellers  to  his  court  j  and  if  the  empire 
of  Lydia  had  continued,  Greek  habits  would  perhaps 
have  soon  spread  over  Asia  Minor. 

But  Lydia  was  about  to  be  overthrown  by  a  real 
Asiatic  monarchy,  which  hated  and  despised  Greek 
ways :  and  in  order  to  understand  the  events  that 
were  now  coming,  we  must  turn  away  from  Greece 
for  a  moment,  and  go  far  back  into  the  history 
of  the  Asiatic  nations. 

2.  Nineveh. — Before  B.C.  1000  the  kings  of 
Nineveh  had  conquered  the  neighbouring  nations 
about  the  Euphrates,  and  had  made  Assyria  a  great 
empire.  In  the  height  of  its  power  Assyria  ruled  as 
far  as  Lydia  on  the  west,  and  on  the  east  perhaps 
as  far  as  the  river  Indus  (first  map).  But  about  B.C. 
750  Babylon  and  Media  revolted,  and  made  them- 
selves independent  kingdoms. 

It  was  after  this,  while  Nineveh  and  Babylon  were 
distinct  kingdoms,  that  the  Jews  were  carried  intp 
captivity,  Israel  by  the  King  of  Assyria  (2  Kings  xvii. 
6),  Judah  by  the  King  of  Babylon  (2  Kings  xxv.). 

3.  Medes. — The  Medes,  who  had  revolted  from 
Nineveh,  were  a  brave  people  living  in  the  highlands 


iv.j  PERSIANS.  51 

east  of  the  Euphrates ;  and  they  united  the  neigh- 
bouring mountain-tribes  under  their  rule,  including 
the  Persians  to  the  south.  The  fourth  king  of  Media, 
Kyaxares,  allied  himself  with  Nabonassar,  king  of 
Babylon,  against  Nineveh  ;  and  in  b.c.  606  they  took 
the  great  city  and  utterly  destroyed  it  (Nahum  hi.). 
As  the  Medes  were  eager  for  still  further  conquests, 
and  did  not  dare  to  attack  Babylon  itself}  they  had 
to  turn  towards  Asia  Minor,  and  there  they  con- 
quered everything  until  they  met  the  Lydians.  The 
Lydian  and  Median  armies  were  drawn  up  for  battle, 
when  a  sudden  darkness  came  over  the  earth  through 
an  eclipse  of  the  sun.  They  took  this  for  a  sign, 
and  made  peace,  agreeing  that  the  river  Halys  should 
be  the  boundary  between  the  Lydian  and  Median 
empires  (b.c.  585).  Croesus,  therefore,  in  B.C.  550, 
was  ruling  over  the  country  between  the  ^Egasan  Sea 
and  the  Halys. 

4.  Persians. — Soon  after  the  conquests  of  the 
Medes  had  stopped,  the  Persian  nation  under  Cyrus 
rose  against  the  Medes,  and  put  themselves  at  the, 
head  of  the  great  Median  empire  (b.c.  559).  Croesus 
knew  that  the  Persians  would  begin  to  conquer 
afresh,  and  therefore  he  prepared  for  war.  He  made 
alliance  with  Belshazzar,  king  of  Babylon,  and  with 
Amasis,  king  of  Egypt,  and  sent  to  the  Delphic  oracle 
to  ask  whether  he  should  declare  war  on  Cyrus.  The 
oracle  made  an  ingenious  answer,  and  bade  Croesus 
ally  himself  with  Sparta.  Sparta  promised  him  help  : 
but  without  waiting  for  this,  Croesus  invaded  Kappa- 
dokia,  and  fought  a  drawn  battle  with  Cyrus  (b.c.  547). 
Then  he  retired  to  Saidis,  the  capital  of  Lydia,  and 
sent  word  to  all  his  allies  to  have  their  troops  at  Sard  is 
at  the  end  of  five  months.  But  Cyrus  was  more  ready 
than  Croesus  supposed.  He  marched  straight  upon 
Sardis,  defeated  Croesus,  and  took  the  city  before  help 
could  arrive.  All  Lydia  submitted  to  the  conqueror, 
and  the  Ionic  coast-cities  offt  red  to  submit,  if  Cyrus 
would    continue   the    privileges   which    Croesus   had 


52  IONIA  CONQUERED.  [chap. 

granted  them.  Cyrus  refused  ;  and  the  cities  had  to 
decide  whether  they  would  submit  to  the  Persian  on 
his  own  terms  or  fight  for  their  liberty.  They  deter- 
mined to  fight,  and  sent  to  Sparta  to  ask  for  help. 
Sparta  gave  them  none.  The  time  for  submission 
was  past,  and  the  towns  were  besieged  one  after 
another  by  Harpagus,  the  general  of  Cyrus. 

5.  War  in  Ionia. — Never  had  the  Greeks  seen 
such  a  terrible  enemy  as  the  Persians,  who  now  at- 
tacked them.  In  the  Lydian  wars  they  had  seen  a 
fine  cavalry,  but  the  Persians  had  new  troops  and 
contrivances  of  every  kind.  Their  archers  shot  the 
defenders  of  the  walls.  They  brought  up  machines 
for  regular  sieges ;  they  surrounded  the  towns  with 
trenches,  that  no  one  might  get  in  or  out ;  they  built 
up  mounds  against  the  walls,  or  threw  the  walls  down 
by  undermining  them.  The  Lydians  had  spared  holy 
places  ;  but  the  Persians,  like  the  armies  of  Mohammed 
in  later  times,  were  believers  in  one  God,  and  hated 
all  the  works  of  idolaters :  and  all  through^  their 
wars  they  exasperated  the  Greeks  by  destroying  their 
temples.  The  Ionians  saw  that  all  was  lost ;  and 
some  of  them  showed  a  noble  love  of  liberty  by 
abandoning  their  homes  rather  than  submit  to  the 
conqueror.  Many  of  the  citizens  of  Teos  sailed 
away  to  Thrace,  and  founded  Abdera :  the  citizens  of 
Phoksea,  having, made  a  day's  truce  with  the  army 
besieging  them,  employed  the  time  in  putting  their 
wives  and  children  on  board  ship,  and  then  sailed 
away,  leaving  an  empty  city  to  the  Persians.  After  a 
time  some  of  them  fell  home-sick  and  returned  ;  the 
rest,  after  many  adventures,  settled  at  Elea,  in  the  south 
of  Italy  (p.  35).  The  other  towns  were  all  reduced  by 
the  Persians,  and,  when  once  conquered,  they  were  not 
badly  treated.  But  though  their  prosperity  continued 
for  the  moment,  their  wisest  citizen,  Bias  of  Priene. 
told  them  that  they  were  now  at  the  mercy  of  Persia, 
and  that  it  was  the  wrant  of  union  which  had  cost  them 
their  liberty.     He  tried  to  persuade  them,  while  they 


tv.]  DARIUS.  S3 

still  had  their  ships,  to  follow  the  example  of  the 
Phokaeans, — to  sail  away  to  Sardinia,  and  there  to 
found  one  great  city  in  common.  But  the  other 
Ionian  cities  had  not  the  spirit  of  the  Phokaeans ; 
they  thought  that  their  trade  and  wealth  might  be  as 
great  as  ever,  although  they  were  subject  to  the  Per 
sians,  and  they  refused  to  follow  the  advice  of  Bias. 

6.  Persian  Empire  becomes  a  Naval  Power. 
The  whole  coast  of  Asia  Minor  was  reduced  by 
Harpagus,  and  the  islands  of  Chios  and  Lesbos  sub- 
mitted, although  the  Persians  had  as  yet  no  fleet 
to  reach  them  with  (about  B.C.  540).  While  Harpagus 
was  conquering  the  Greeks,  Cyrus  himself  besieged 
and  took  Babylon  (Isaiah  xlv.;  Jerem.  li.).  It  was 
now  that  the  Jews  were  allowed  to  return  to  Judasa 
(Ezra  i.).  When  Cyrus  was  dead  (b.c.  525),  Phoenicia 
submitted  to  his  son  Kambyses,  so  that  the  Persians 
could  now  compel  two  maritime  nations,  the  Phoeni- 
cians and  the  Ionians,  to  supply  them  with  a  fleet, 
and  could  therefore  think  of  making  conquests  be- 
yond the  seas.  Kambyses  added  Egypt  and  Cyprus 
to  the  Persian  empire,  and  died  in  B.C.  522. 

7.  Darius  sets  the  Empire  in  order. — After 
Kambyses,  an  impostor  was  set  up  as  king  of  Persia, 
pretending  that  he  was  Smerdis,  the  younger  son  of 
Cyrus,  who  had  really  been  put  to  death  by  Kam- 
byses. He  was  discovered  at  the  end  of  eight  months, 
and  killed,  and  Darius,  a  kinsman  of  Cyrus,  was 
made  king  (b.c.  521).  Darius  was  a  wise  ruler.  When 
he  came  to  the  throne  a  great  part  of  the  empire  was 
in  revolt,  and  he  saw  that  if  it  was  to  be  held  together 
there  must  be  a  more  regular  government.  There- 
fore he  divided  the  empire  into  twenty  provinces, 
called  Satrapies,  and  had  all  the  land  in  the  empire 
measured,  that  he  might  fix  the  tax  that  each  satrapy 
was  to  pay  yearly.  He  made  Susa  in  Media  the  centre 
of  government  (Esther  i.  1,  2),  and  laid  out  roads 
from  Susa  to  all  parts  of  the  ^.mpire,  and  made 
arrangements  all  along  these  roads  for  taking  people 


54  SCYTHIAN  EXPEDITION.  [chap 

engaged  on  the  king's  business  quickly  from  one 
place  to  another.  Coins  called  Dariks  were  struck, 
which  passed  current  everywhere.  Thus  the  countries 
from  the  Indus  to  the  ^Egaean  Sea  were  now  governed 
on  one  system,  and  Darius  knew  what  was  going  on 
in  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  empire.  In  the  con- 
quered countries  any  native  government  that  seemed 
likely  to  work  well  and  submissively  was  maintained 
under  the  Satuip  or  Persian  governor  of  the  province. 
Thus  in  Judaea  Zerubbabel  and  Joshua  governed 
under  the  satrap  of  Syria  (Haggai  i.)  ;  and  in  Ionia 
Darius  saw  that  the  rule  of  tyrants,  which  was  common 
there,  would  be  likely  to  keep  the  cities  in  obedience 
to  Persia.  Therefore  he  gave  his  protection  to  a 
tyrant  in  each  of  the  cities. 

8.  Scythian  Expedition. — When  Darius  had  put 
the  empire  in  order,  he  made  an  expedition  against  the 
Scythians  in  Europe,  north  of  the  Danube  (e.c.  510); 
and  now  it  was  seen  how  important  the  conquest  of 
Ionia  had  been  to  Persia ;  for  Darius  had  the  Ionian 
tyrants  to  raise  a  fleet  of  600  ships,  and  join  him 
in  the  expedition.  His  army  marched  to  the  shore 
of  the  Bosporus,  one  of  the  straits  that  divide  Europe 
from  Asia.  There  a  bridge  of  boats  had  been  made 
ready  by  Mandrokles,  an  engineer  of  Samos,  and 
the  Persian  army  marched  over  it  into  Europe.  From 
the  Bosporus,  they  marched  northward,  through 
Thrace,  till  they  came  to  the  river  Danube.  Mean- 
time the  Ionian  fleet,  under  the  command  of  the 
tyrants,  had  sailed  from  the  Bosporus  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Danube,  and  had  made  a  bridge  of  boats 
across  the  river  some  way  inland.  Darius  crossed 
over  this  bridge  into  Scythia  with  his  army,  and  com- 
manded the  tyrants  to  remain  at  the  bridge  and 
keep  guard  over  it  for  two  months.  But  at  the  end  of 
two  months  Darius  did  not  return.  Instead  of 
meeting  the  Persian  army  and  fighting  a  battle,  the 
Scythians,  who  were  a  wandering  people  without  fixed 
homes,  had  fallen  back  before  their  invaders,  so  as  to 


iv.]  HISTI&.US.  55 

allure  them  further  and  further  into  the  country;  and 
the  Greeks  heard  that  Darius  and  his  army  had  lost 
their  way  in  the  plains,  and  were  now  retreating 
towards  the  Danube,  attacked  by  Scythian  bowmen,  and 
in  miserable  plight.  When  this  news  came,  one  of  the 
tyrants,  Miltiades,  ruler  of  the  Thracian  Chersonesus, 
an  Athenian  by  birth,  proposed  to  the  other  tyrants 
that  they  should  destroy  the  bridge,  and  leave  Darius 
and  his  army  to  perish  by  famine  in  Scythia.  But 
Histiaeus,  the  tyrant  of  Miletus,  reminded  the  tyrants 
that  it  was  the  Persians  who  kept  them  on  their  thrones, 
and  that  if  the  Persian  empire  were  destroyed  they 
would  be  driven  out  of  the  cities  by  the  people.  There- 
fore the  tyrants  refused  to  break  down  the  bridge,  and 
the  counsel  of  Histiaeus  saved  Darius  and  his  army. 

9.  Persian  Empire  extended  as  far  as  Thes- 
saly. — Darius  returned  to  Sardis  in  safety,  and  le!t 
Megabazus,  a  Persian  general,  with  80,000  men,  to 
conquer  that  part  of  Thrace  which  had  not  yet  sub- 
mitted, and  to  make  a  regular  Satrapy  in  Europe. 
Megabazus  subdued  all  Thrace,  and  sent  ambassadors 
to  Amyntas,  king  of  Macedonia,  summoning  him  to 
acknowledge  Darius  as  his  master.  Amyntas  gave 
earth  and  water,  which  was  the  Persian  token  of 
submission,  so  that  Macedonia  was  added  to  the 
subject  states,  and  the  Persian  empire  now  extended 
«.n  Europe  from  the  Danube  to  Mount  Olympus,  the 
boundary  between  Macedonia  and  Thes^aly.  To 
reward  Histiaeus  for  preserving  the  bridge,  Darius 
^ave  him  the  country  of  Myrkmus  in  Thrace  on  the 
river  Strymon.  And  now  possessing  both  Miletus 
and  Myrkinus,  Histiaeus  began  to  make  great  plans 
tor  conquest.  But  the  satrap  Megabazus  discovered 
his  intentions,  and  warned  Darius  that  Histiaeus  was 
preparing  to  make  himself  independent :  so  Darius 
sent  for  Histiaeus,  and  under  pretence  of  friendship 
took  him  to  live  at  the  court  at  Susa,  allowing 
Aristagoras,  the  son-in-law  of  Histiaeus,  to  reign  as 
tyrant  at  Miletus  in  his  stead. 


56  IONIAN  RE  VOL  7\  [chap. 

jo.  Ionians  Revolt. — Aristagoras  was  just  as  am- 
bitious as  Histiaeus,  and  he  soon  saw  an  opportunity 
for  extending  his  power.  The  nobles  of  the  island 
of  Naxos  had  been  driven  out  by  the  people,  and 
asked  Aristagoras  for  help  (b.c.  502).  Aristagoras 
thought  that  if  he  restored  the  nobles  he  would  be 
master  of  the  island:  but  as  Naxos  was  too  power 
ful  for  him  to  attack  it  by  himself,  he  went  to 
Artaph ernes,  the  Satrap  of  his  district,  and  proposed 
that  the  Persians  should  help  him  to  conquer  Naxos, 
and  add  nbt  only  Naxos  but  other  islands  to  the 
Persian  empire.  Artaphernes  agreed,  and  gave  Aris- 
tagoras a  fleet  of  two  hundred  ships.  But  the  Persian 
commander  of  the  fleet  quarrelled  with  Aristagoras, 
and  the  enterprize  failed.  Aristagoras  now  feared  the 
anger  of  Artaphernes,  and  began  to  think  of  revolting. 
Just  at  the  same  time  Histiaeus,  who  wished  to  be  dis- 
missed from  Susa,  sent  Aristagoras  word  to  revolt, 
thinking  that  he  himself  would  be  sent  by  Darius  to 
put  down  the  rebels,  and  would  so  regain  his  liberty. 
Aristagoras  assembled  the  people,  proclaimed  that  he 
would  be  tyrant  no  longer,  and  persuaded  the  people 
of  Miletus  and  the  other  cities  to  revolt  from  Persia. 
The  tyrants  were  deposed  and  liberty  proclaimed  in 
all  the  cities  (b.c.  500).  The  ^olian  and  Dorian  colo- 
nies and  the  island  of  Cyprus  joined  the  insurrection. 

11.  Athenians  burn  Sardis.  —  Knowing  the 
great  power  of  the  Persians,  Aristagoras  crossed  over 
to  Greece  to  seek  for  help.  The  Spartans  refused  it, 
but  Athens  immediately  sent  twenty  ships,  and  Eretria 
in  Eubcea  sent  five.  Their  troops  united  with  the 
revolted  Ionians,  and  marched  suddenly  on  Sardis, 
where  Artaphernes  was,  and  set  fire  to  the  town.  But 
the  Persian  forces  gathered  :  the  Greeks  could  not 
hold  Sardis,  and  were  attacked  and  defeated  as  they 
were  retreating  to  the  coast.  The  Athenians  returned 
home,  and  the  whole  force  of  Persia  was  collected 
against  the  revolted  cities. 

1  a.   Tattle  of  Lade  (B.C.  496). — The  war  was 


IV.]  LADE.  57 

long  and  desperate.  The  smaller  cities  were  besieged 
first,  and  made  stubborn  resistance.  Four  years  had 
passed  before  the  Persians  collected  their  forces  by 
land  and  by  sea  to  blockade  Miletus,  the  greatest  of 
them  all.  Then  all  the  cities  that  were  still  untaken 
held  council  together ;  and  as  they  could  not  beat  off 
the  besieging  army  by  land,  they  resolved  to  embark 
all  their  troops  on  ships,  and  try  to  keep  the  Persians 
from  surrounding  Miletus  by  sea  also.  Altogether 
they  mustered  353  ships.  The  fleet  was  stationed  off 
the  island  of  Lade  in  front  of  Miletus  (map,  p.  10). 
Then  the  Persians  brought  up  the  navy  of  Phoenicia, 
600  ships  :  and  when  the  hearts  of  the  Greeks  sank  at 
the  number  of  the  enemy,  a  brave  Phokaean,  named 
Dionysius,  promised  them  certain  victory  if  they 
would  do  what  he  should  tell  them.  The  Ionians 
agreed  ;  and  for  seven  days  Dionysius  made  them 
practise  for  the  battle  from  morning  till  night.  But 
the  Ionians  were  a  pleasure-loving  race,  and  were  not 
used  to  discipline  and  obedience.  On  the  eighth  day 
they  lost  all  patience,  and  left  the  ships,  and  made 
themselves  comfortable  under  the  shade  in  the  island. 
In  the  meantime,  by  order  of  the  Persian  generals,  the 
former  tyrants  were  trying  to  persuade  the  leaders 
of  their  cities  to  desert  when  the  battle  should  be 
fought,  under  promise  of  pardon  from  Persia  ;  and 
the  Persians,  trusting  that  the  tyrants  had  succeeded 
ordered  the  Phoenician  fleet  to  attack.  The  Greeks 
were  again  on  board  their  ships.  And  now,  when  the 
Greek  and  the  Phoenician  navies  fronted  one  another 
in  order  of  battle,  and  the  last  great  struggle  for  the 
freedom  of  Ionia  was  at  hand,  a  shameful  sight  was 
seen.  Before  a  blow  was  struck,  forty  nine  out  of  the 
sixty  ships  of  Samos  sailed  away.  The  Lesbians  fol- 
lowed, and  after  them  many  others.  The  crews  of 
Miletus  and  Chios  had  to  fight  the  whole  Phoenician 
fleet  almost  alone  ;  Dionysius  was  one  of  the  few  who 
did  not  desert  them.  They  fought  with  noble  bravery, 
but  in  vain.     The  battle  of  Lade  was  the  death-blow 


58  VENGEANCE  OF  THE  PERSIANS.       [chap. 

to  Ionia  •  and  the  disgrace  was  as  great  as  the  ruin 
It  showed  to  all  the  world  how  incapable  the  Ionians 
were  of  making  any  sacrifice  for  their  common  cause, 
and  how  destitute  of  the  sense  of  honour  and  duty. 

13.  Vengeance  of  the  Persians. — Soon  after 
the  battle  of  Lade,  Miletus  was  taken  by  storm  (b.c. 
495),  and  the  Persians  took  terrible  vengeance  for  the 
burning  of  Sardis.  They  killed  most  of  the  men;  the 
women  and  children  were  carried  into  captivity ;  the 
holy  places  burnt  to  the  ground. 

After  Miletus  the  Persians  took  all  the  cities  on 
the  coast,  and  in  the  neighbouring  islands,  and  in  the 
Thracian  Chersonese.  Everywhere  they  carried  fire 
and  the  sword  :  still  there  cannot  have  been  the 
wholesale  slaughter  which  the  Greeks  represent,  for 
the  cities  were  soon  again  populous  nnd  thriving. 

14.  First  Persian  Kxpedition  against 
Greece  (B.C.  493). — Darius  now  intended  to  punish 
Athens  and  Eretria  for  their  share  in  burning  Sardis. 
A  Persian  army,  commanded  by  Mardonius,  crossed 
the  Hellespont,  and  marched  towards  Greece  along  the 
coast  of  Thrace,  the  fleet  accompanying  it.  But  when 
the  fleet  was  sailing  round  the  promontory  of  Mouni 
Athos,  a  hurricane  arose  and  destroyed  300  ships  with 
20,000  men.  At  the  same  time  theThracians  attacked 
Mardonius,  and  he  tun  ed  back  in  shame  to  Asia. 

15.  Second  Expedition  (B.C.  490).  — Then 
Darius  assembled  a  new  army  and  anew  fleet;  but 
before  invading  Greece  he  sent  envoys  to  the  islands 
to  demand  earth  and  water,  in  token  of  submission. 
Most  of  them  gave  it,  including  the  powerful  island 
of  ^Eglna,  which  was  at  war  with  Athens,  and  would 
gladly  have  seen  Athens  ruined.  In  B.C.  490  the 
fleet  of  Darius  sailed  into  the  ^Egaean,  with  an  army  on 
board  under  the  command  of  Datic  and  Artaphernes, 
ind  landed  them  first  at  Naxos,  which  had  refused  to 
submit.  Naxos  had  defended  itself  successfully  against 
the  fleet  of  Artaphernes  in  B.C.  505  (p.  56);  but  the 
bravest  men  were  terrified  by  the  destruction  of  Ionia, 


IV.]  MARATHON.  59 

and  the  Naxians  fled  from  their  city  into  the  moan 
tains.  The  Persians  utterly  destroyed  the  town  with 
all  its  sanctuaries.  Then  they  sailed  to  Euboea,  and 
besieged  Eretria.  On  the  sixth  day  the  gates  were 
opened  by  traitors.  The  Persians  razed  the  city  to 
the  ground,  and  sent  most  of  the  citizens  into  Asia 
in  chains. 

16.  Marathon  (B.C.  490). — From  Eretria  the  Per- 
sians  crossed  the  Euripus,  and  landed  on  the  plain  of 
Marathon,  twenty-two  miles  from  Athens.  The  ruin 
of  the  Athenians  was  certain  if  they  waited  for 
their  town  to  be  besieged  :  nothing  but  a  victory 
in  the  field  could  save  them  from  slaughter  and 
captivity.  They  marched  out,  9,000  heavy  armed  men 
(p.  41),  under  the  command  of  the  Polemarch  and  the 
ten  Strategi  (p.  46),  and  encamped  on  the  hills  over- 
looking the  plain  of  Marathon.  The  army  of  the 
Persians  that  had  wrought  such  ruin  upon  Ionia,  the 
army  which  no  Greeks  had  ever  resisted  with  success, 
lay  below  them  on  the  plain  between  the  mountains 
and  the  sea.  Sparta  had  promised  help,  but  delayed 
sending  it,  and  the  Athenians  were  alone  in  their 
desperate  peril.  At  this  moment  the  little  army  of 
the  citizens  of  Plataea,  only  a  thousand  in  all,  who  had 
lately  had  protection  given  them  by  the  Athenians, 
came  to  share  their  late.  Such  courage  and  reso- 
lution filled  the  Athenians  with  admiration,  and 
were  never  forgotten.  Still  the  whole  number  of  the 
army  was  only  10,000 ;  and  five  of  the  generals 
thought  that  they  ought  to  wait  till  help  came  from 
Sparta.  The  leader  of  the  other  five  was  Miltiades, 
(p.  55),  who,  after  escaping  from  the  Persians,  had 
been  elected  Strategus  in  Athens.  Miltiades  knew 
that  there  were  traitors  among  the  citizens,  and  feared 
that  they  would  break  up  the  army  if  fighting  were 
delayed.  Therefore,  though  the  Persians  were  ten 
times  as  numerous,  he  urged  immediate  battle  :  and 
when  the  votes  of  the  ten  Strategi  were  equally 
divided,  the  Polemarch  Kallimachus  gave  his  casting- 
6 


60  MARATHON,  [chap 

vote  for  battle.  The  generals  gave  up  each  his  own 
day's  command  (p.  46)  to  Miltiades  ;  and  Miltiades, 
when  the  right  time  had  come,  drew  up  the  army  in 
line  for  battle.  After  the  generals  had  addressed  their 
tribesmen  the  battle  signal  was  given,  and  the  whole 
army,  raising  the  battle-cry.  charged  down  the  hill 
upon  the  Persians.  In  the  struggle  the  centre  ol 
the  Greek  line  was  driven  back  \  but  the  two  ends 
carried  everything  before  them,  and  turned  and 
attacked  the  Persians  in  the  centre.  The  Persians 
gave  way,  and  fled  for  refuge  to  their  ships,  or  were 
driven  into  the  marshes  by  the  shore.  Six  thousand 
Persians,  and  no  more  than  192  Athenians,  fell  in  the 
battle.  Either  before  or  immediately  after  the  battle 
a  bright  shield  was  seen  raised  on  a  mountain  by 
Athenian  traitors,  as  a  signal  to  the  Persians  that  there 
were  no  troops  in  the  city.  Miltiades  instantly 
marched  back  to  Athens.  Soon  after  he  reached  it 
the  Persian  fleet  approached,  expecting  to  find  Athens 
without  troops.  When  they  saw  the  men  who  had  just 
fought  at  Marathon  drawn  up  on  the  beach  ready  to 
fight  them  again,  they  sailed  away,  and  the  whole 
armament  returned  to  Asia. 

The  battle  of  Marathon  was  glorious  to  Athens  and 
Plataea  ;  and  though  the  number  of  Greeks  who 
fought  and  died  in  it  was  small,  it  is  one  of  the  most 
important  battles  in  all  history  :  for,  had  it  not  been 
won,  Athens  must  have  been  captured  by  Persia  ;  and 
the  rest  of  Greece  would  probably  have  submitted. 
Greece  would  have  become  a  Persian  province ;  and 
*he  history  of  Europe,  instead  of  being  the  history 
of  free  and  progressing  nations,  might  have  been  like 
the  history  of  Asia, — a  history  of  oppressors  and 
their  slaves.  It  was  an  act  of  splendid  courage  in 
the  Athenians  to  face  that  army  which  had  ovei 
thrown  Lydia,  Babylon,  and  Ionia :  and  it  shows 
the  insight  of  Miltiades  into  the  differences  between 
soldiers,  that,  after  seeing  the  Ionian  Greeks  one  after 
another  overthrown  by  Persia,  he  should  yet  have 


IV,]  M1LTIADES.  61 

been  convinced  that  the  10,000  Athenians  would  be 
a  match  for  the  whole  Persian  army. 

On  the  day  after  the  battle  2,000  Spartans  reached 
Athens.  They  had  delayed  marching  until  the  full 
moon,  because  this  was  their  religious  custom.  But 
had  Sparta  really  meant  to  defend  Athens,  it  would 
have  sent  more  than  2,000  men,  whether  they  waited 
for  the  full  moon  or  not.  Thus  Sparta  lost  the  glory 
of  a  share  in  the  first  victory  over  Persia. 

17.  Miltiades. — Greece  was  saved ;  but  the  general 
who  had  saved  it  perished  miserably.  Miltiades  had 
been  twenty  years  a  tyrant,  and  he  now  wished  to  em- 
ploy the  forces  of  Athens  like  a  tyrant  instead  of  a 
citizen-general.  He  persuaded  the  people  to  give 
him  command  of  a  fleet,  without  telling  them  for  what 
purpose  ;  and  out  of  private  enmity  he  attacked  the 
island  of  Paros.  But  the  Parians  defended  themselves 
bravely,  and  Miltiades  found  that  he  could  do  nothing. 
At  last  a  priestess,  who  wished  to  betray  the  city,  sent 
word  to  Miltiades  to  come  secretly  to  her  temple. 
Miltiades  tried  to  climb  into  the  temple  by  night,  but 
fell  and  wounded  his  thigh.  And  now,  after  twenty- 
six  days'  command,  he  returned  to  Athens  with  nothing 
done.  He  was  accused  of  deceiving  the  people,  and 
sentenced  to  pay  a  heavy  fine.  His  property  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  Persians ;  he  could  pay  nothing. 
His  wound  mortified*  and  he  died  in  dishonour. 

18.  Themistokles. — After  the  battle  of  Marathon 
the  Persians  retreated  from  Greece,  and  Athens  was 
left  to  itself.  Its  two  leading  citizens  were  now 
Themistokles  and  Aristides.  Themistokles  was  the 
cleverest  man  of  his  time.  He  was  wonderfully  quick 
and  wise  in  foreseeing  what  was  going  to  happen  \  and 
when  he  had  determined  to  have  anything  done,  no 
difficulty  was  so  great  but  that  he  could  find  some 
ingenious  plan  for  making  things  go  as  he  wished. 
While  the  other  Athenians  were  satisfied  with  having 
beaten  the  Persians  at  Marathon,  Themistokles  felt 
sure   that   Persia  would   attack   Greece   again.     He 


62 


ATHENIANS  BUILD  A  FLEET.         [chap. 


thought  with  himself  how  Athens  might  be  made  as 
powerful  as  possible :  and  as  he  looked  on  the  jutting 
coast  of  Piraeus,  four  miles  from  Athens,  with  its  bays 
lying  as  if  they  had  been  made  for  harbours,  and  thought 
of  the  greatness  of  the  Ionic  maritime  towns  before 
their  destruction,  and  of  the  multitude  of  islands  and 
coast  towns  in  Greece  which  might  all  be  controlled 
by  one  strong  fleet,  he  saw  that  if  Athens  would  take 
to  the  sea  it  would  be  possible  to  give  her  such  a 
power  as  had  never  been  imagined.  He  saw  that 
Athens  might  bring  a  far  greater  force  against  Persia 


'$p£ 


SAIAMIS    AND    THE    COAST    OK    ATTICA. 


by  sea  than  she  ever  could  by  land  ;  and  that  the  leader- 
ship of  Greece  would  pass  from  inland  Sparta  and  its 
army  to  a  State  which  could  control  the  coasts  and 
islands  with  a  fleet. 

19.  Athenians  build  a  Fleet. — Fortunately  for 
the  plans  of  Themistokles  there  was  constant  war 
between  Athens  and  the  island  of  y^Egina  (p.  58).  The 
Athenians  could  not  overcome  /^Egina  without  a  power- 
ful navy  ;  and  this  made  them  listen  to  the  counsel  of 
Tnemistokles,  and  agree  to  spend  the  produce  of  the 
public  silver  mines  in  building  200  triremes.  But 
Themistokles  knew  that  the  fleet  could  never  thrive 


rv.l  ARISTWES.  6* 

unless  a  great  maritime  business  and  population  arose. 
He  therefore  did  everything  to  attract  the  people  to  a 
seafaring  life,  and  to  encourage  trade  by  sea.  Hitherto 
the  Athenian  ships  had  put  in  at  the  east  corner  of 
the  open  bay  of  Phalerun.  Now  the  safe  inclosed 
bays  around  Piraeus  were  made  into  good  harbours, 
and  a  busy  trading  town,  called  Piraeus,  grew  up 
on  their  shore.  In  B.C.  490  Athens  had  hardly  any 
navy ;  in  B.C.  480  she  had  a  fleet  of  200  triremes, 
the  most  powerful  fleet  in  Greece. 

20.  Aristides. — Aristides  disapproved  of  the  whole 
plan  of  Themistokles.  He  thought  that  if  Athens  had 
beaten  the  Persians  once  by  land  she.  might  beat  them 
by  land  again.  The  soldiers  who  had  fought  at  Mara- 
thon were  all  owners  of  land  (p.  41)  :  but,  if  a  fleet 
were  formed,  it  would  be  chiefly  manned  by  poor 
people  who  had  no  land  ;  and  Aristides  knew  that 
whoever  had  the  chief  share  in  fighting  on  behalf  of 
Athens  would  also  have  the  chief  share  in  its  govern- 
ment. If  the  strength  of  Athens  lay  in  its  fleet,  the 
poor  people  who  served  in  the  fleet  would  get  the 
upper  hand  in  the  State.  A  maritime  and  trading 
population  would  grow  up,  fond  of  adventure  and 
change  ;  and  the  good  old  ways,  he  thought,  would 
be  forsaken.  In  wishing  Athens  not  to  have  a  fleet, 
Aristides  was  certainly  wrong ;  but  it  was  not  on 
account  of  his  opinions  that  he  had  such  credit,  but 
on  account  of  the  nobleness  of  his  character.  He 
was  a  perfectly  honourable  man.  Whoever  else  took 
bribes,  or  betrayed  his  cause  (pp.  68,  74),  it  was 
known  that  Aristides  would  never  be  anything  but 
true  and  just ;  and  this,  as  we  shall  see,  gave  him  real 
power,  not  only  in  Athens,  but  over  all  Greece,  when 
the  need  for  a  just  man  was  felt.  At  present  such 
was  the  strife  between  the  parties  of  Aristides  and 
Themistokles  that  an  ostrakism  (p.  46)  had  to  be 
held.  Aristides  was  ostrakised,  and  Themistokles  was 
left  free  to  carry  out  his  plans. 

21.  Xerxes  invades  Greece  (B.C.  480). — King 


&|  XERXES  iNVADES  GREECE.  [char 

Darius  died  in  B.C.  485,  and  his  successor,  Xerxes, 
collected  an  enormous  force  for  invading  Greece.  In 
every  country  from  Asia  Minor  to  the  river  Indus 
troops  were  levied.  Two  bridges  of  boats  were  made 
over  the  Hellespont  A  fleet  of  1,200  war-ships  and 
3,000  carrying  ships  assembled  on  the  coast  of  Ionia 
and  Phoenicia.  Stores  of  food  were  collected  in  the 
towrns  along  the  coast  of  Thrace ;  and  a  canal  was 
cut  through  the  promontory  of  Mount  Athos,  that  the 
fleet  might  not  again  have  to  make  the  dangerous 
passage  round  it  (p.  58).  The  place  of  meeting  for 
the  land  forces  was  Kritalla  in  Kappadokia.  Ther°, 
in  B.C.  481,  the  troops  of  forty-six  nations  were  as- 
sembled, perhaps  a  million  in  number,  all  dressed 
and  armed  in  the  manner  of  their  native  countries. 
Xerxes  put  himself  at  their  head,  and  led  them  to 
Sardis  for  the  winter.  In  the  spring  of  B.C.  480  the 
whole  host  marched  to  the  Hellespont,  where  the  fleet 
was  waiting  for  them.  On  the  heights  of  Abydos  a 
throne  of  white  marble  was  erected  ;  from  this  throne 
Xerxes  looked  over  sea  and  land  covered  with  his 
troops,  and  gave  the  order  to  cross  into  Europe.  For 
seven  days  and  nights  his  hosts  were  marching  over 
the  bridge.  Then  from  the  Hellespont  the  army 
marched  along  the  coast  of  Thrace,  and  met  the  fleet 
again  at  Doriskus.  Here  the  ships  were  drawn  up  on 
shore,  and  the  crews  and  the  land  army  were  numbered 
together.  From  Doriskus  the  army  and  fleet  passed 
on  safely  to  the  gulf  of  Therma. 

22.  Congress  at  Isthmus  of  Corinth. — In  the 
autumn  of  B.C.  481,  Sparta  and  Athens  hail  summoned 
the  Greek  states  to  a  Congress  at  the  Isthmus  of 
Corinth,  to  decide  upon  the  best  means  of  defending 
Greece.  Deputies  came  from  all  the  great  Pelopon- 
nesian  States  except  Argos  and  Achaea,  and  from 
Athens,  Thespiae,  Plataea,  and  Thessaly.  ^Egina  was 
reconciled  to  Athens,  and  joined  the  common  cause. 
Argos,  out  of  hatred  to  Sparta,  and  Thebes,  out  of 
hatred  to  Athens,  favoured  the  Persians  ;  Achaea  had 


£V.]  TEMPE.  65 

never  acted  with  Sparta.  The  Congress  sent  envoys 
to  the  colonies  to  ask  them  to  join  in  the  defence  of: 
Greece,  but  in  vain.  Gelon,  tyrant  of  Syracuse,  who 
had  a  greater  aimy  than  any  Greek  State,  refused 
to  help  unless  he  were  given  the  chief  command  : 
Crete  would  do  nothing :  Kerkyra  promised  to  send 
ships,  but  did  not  mean  that  they  should  arrive  in 
time.  Thus  it  wras  but  a  small  part  of  Greece  that  had 
the  will  and  the  courage  to  resist  the  Persians  :  and 
when  we  speak  of  the  glory  which  Greece  won  by 
this  war,  we  must  remember  that  the  greater  part 
of  Greece  had  no  share  in  it  whatever,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  did  nothing  for  the  cause  of  Greece.  The 
credit  of  the  war  belongs  to  Athens,  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  league,  the  little  Boeotian  towns  of  Plataea  and 
Thespiae,  and  a  very  few  other  States.  Athens, 
though  it  contributed  so  large  a  fleet,  honourably 
allowed  Sparta  to  command  both  by  land  and  sea,  in 
order  that  there  might  be  no  division.  The  allies  took 
an  oath  to  resist  to  the  last,  and,  if  they  should  be  suc- 
cessful, to  make  war  upon  all  Greek  States  that  had 
willingly  submitted  to  Persia,  and  to  dedicate  a  tenth 
of  the  whole  spoil  to  the  Delphic  god. 

23.  Tempe. — The  Congress  had  now  to  decide 
how  Greece  was  to  be  defended.  As  the  Persians  had 
such  an  immense  force,  the  best  plan  for  the  Greeks 
was,  not  to  fight  a  pitched  battle  in  the  open  country, 
where  they  would  be  surrounded,  but  to  meet  the 
Persians  in  some  narrow  place,  where  ten  thousand 
men  would  be  as  good  as  half  a  million.  Greece  is  so 
mountainous  a  country  that  sometimes  the  only  way 
from  one  district  to  another  is  a  single  narrow  pass  ; 
and  the  Congress  believed  that  the  Persians  could  only 
enter  Greece  through  the  narrow  valley  of  Tempe  in 
the  north  of  Thessaly.  They  therefore  sent  an  army 
of  10,000  men  to  Tempe.  Put  on  reaching  it.  the 
generals  found  that  there  was  another  road  by  which 
the  Persians  could  get  round  them,  so  that  it  would 
be   useless   to   post   the   troops    at   Tempe.      They 


66  THERMOPYLAE.  [chap. 

returned  to  the  isthmus  of  Corinth,  and  the  Congress 
had  to  fix  on  another  place. 

24.  Thermopylae. — In  all  Thessaly  there  was  no 
narrow  pass  which  the  Persians  had  to  go  through  ; 
but  south  of  Thessaly,  at  the  head  of  the  Malian  Gulf 
(map,  p.  19),  their  road  ran  between  the  mountains 
and  a  swamp  which  stretched  to  the  sea  ;  anrl  at  one 
place  the  swamp  came  so  near  the  mountain  that  there 
was  hardly  room  for  the  road  to  run  between.  This 
is  the  famous  pass  of  Thermopylae,  and  here  it  was 
thought  a  small  army  might  block  the  way  against  any 
number  of  the  enemy.  The  Spartans  were  just  now 
celebrating  a  religious  festival  at  which  all  their  citizens 
had  to  appear  ;  therefore  only  300  Spartans  were  sent 
to  Thermopylae,  but  with  them  were  1,000  Helots 
or  more,  and  about  3,000  heavy-armed  men  from  other 
Peloponnesian  States.  The  general  was  Leonidas, 
king  of  Sparta.  On  their  way  through  Bceotia  they 
were  joined  by  the  little  army  of  Thespiae,  700  in 
number,  and  a  body  of  Phokians  and  Lokrians  met 
them  at  Thermopylae  ;  so  that  there  were  in  all  about 
7,000  men.  At  the  same  time  the  fleet  was  posted  at 
Artemisium,  at  the  north  end  of  the  Eubcean  Straits, 
to  prevent  the  Persian  fleet  getting  past  and  landing 
men  behind  the  Greeks  at  Thermopylae.  The  fleet 
numbered  271  ships,  and  was  commanded  by  Eury- 
biades,  a  Spartan. 

When  Leonidas  reached  the  pass  of  Thermopylae, 
he  found  that  there  was  a  way  over  the  mountains 
by  which  a  body  of  Persians  might  cross  and  attack 
him  from  behind.  He  therefore  sent  the  Phokians 
to  defend  the  mountain-road,  and  made  ready  for 
battle  himself  in  the  pass.  The  Persians  approached  ; 
and  for  four  days  they  lay  before  the  pass  without 
attacking,  and  were  astonished  to  see  the  Spartans 
uiietly  practising  gymnastics  and  combing  their  long 
:air  as  they  did  before  a  festival.  On  the  fifth  day, 
Xerxes  ordered  an  assault,  and  during  the  whole  of 
chat  day  and  the  next  the  battle  continued,  without  the 


rv.]  LEON/DAS.  67 

Persians  being  able  to  drive  back  the  Gieeks.  But 
on  the  third  day  after  the  fighting  began,  a  native  of 
the  country  told  Xerxes  of  the  path  over  the  moun- 
tain :  and  at  nightfall  a  strong  Persian  force  was  sent 
co  ascend  the  path  and  take  the  Greeks  in  the  rear. 
In  the  early  morning  the  Phokians  heard  a  trampling 
through  the  woods.  They  were  unprepared,  and 
abandoned  their  post,  and  the  Persians  marched  on 
to  descend  behind  Leonidas.  In  the  course  of  the 
night  Leonidas  knew  what  had  happened.  He  saw 
that  if  he  did  not  retreat  immediately  he  must  be  sur- 
rounded and  perish  ;  but  the  law  of  Sparta  forbade 
the  soldier  to  leave  his  post,  and  Leonidas  had  no  fear 
of  death.  He  ordered  the  other  troops  to  retire  while 
there  was  yet  time,  but  himself,  with  his  300  Spartans, 
remained  to  die  at  his  post.  The  other  troops  de- 
parted, but  the  700  Thespians  bravely  resolved  to 
stay  and  die  with  Leonidas.  And  now,  before  the 
Persians  could  descend  behind  him,  Leonidas  and  his 
1,000  men  threw  themselves  upon  the  host  in  front. 
Leonidas  soon  fell,  but  his  soldiers  fought  on  until 
the  Persians  who  had  crossed  the  mountain  were  close 
at  hand.  Then,  ceasing  the  attack,  they  took  up  then- 
last  position  on  some  rising  ground,  to  defend  them- 
selves against  the  enemy  who  now  surrounded  them. 
Here  all  died,  fighting  bravely  to  the  last. 

Thus  Leonidas  and  his  SparLans  died  at  their  post, 
and  the  Thespians  died  with  them.  Their  heroic  and 
voluntary  death  was  not  in  vain.  At  a  moment  when 
the  hearts  even  of  the  braver  Greeks  were  wavering, 
and  men  were  inclined  to  forsake  the  common  cause 
in  order  to  save  themselves,  Leonidas  gave  a  splendid 
example  of  constancy  and  self-sacrifice,  and  showed 
the  Greeks  how  a  citizen  ought  to  do  his  duty. 

25.  Fleet  at  Artemisium. — During  the  three 
days  of  the  battle  of  Thermopylae  the  Greek  and  Persian 
fleets  were  also  engaged.  The  Greek  fleet  had  been 
posted  at  Artemisium  to  prevent  the  Persian  fleet 
entering  the  Straits  of  Eubcea,  and   landing   troops 


68  ARTEMISIUM.  [chap 

behind  Leonidas  ;  but  on  its  approach  they  were  seized 
with  a  panic,  and  sailed  down  the  straits  to  Chalkis, 
where  the  sea  is  very  narrow.  At  Chalkis  they  heard 
that  part  of  the  Persian  fleet  had  been  destroyed  by 
a  storm,  and  they  took  courage  and  sailed  back  to 
Artenrisium.  Presently  the  Persian  fleet  came  in 
sight,  and  its  numbers  so  terrified  the  Greeks  that  they 
again  prepared  to  forsake  the  post.  Upon  this  the 
Eubceans,  seeing  that  their  only  hope  lay  in  the  Persians 
being  kept  out  of  the  straits,  offered  Themistokles 
thirty  talents  (7,000/.)  if  he  could  get  the  fleet  to 
remain.  By  giving  part  of  the  money  to  Eurybiades 
and  to  other  commanders,  Themistokles  persuaded 
them  not  to  retreat.  Thus  at  this  great  moment  the 
chiefs  of  the  fleet  cared  more  for  bribes  than  for  duty, 
and  were  not  ashamed  to  make  money  out  of  the 
danger  of  Greece. 

The  Persian  admiral,  when  he  saw  the  Greek  fleet 
at  Artemisium,  sent  off  200  of  his  ships  to  sail  round 
Eubcea  and  inclose  the  Greeks  from  the  south.  When 
they  had  gone,  the  Greeks  made  a  very  skilful  attack 
on  the  Persians  and  took  thirty  vessels.  The  same 
night  a  storm  arose  and  entirely  destroyed  the  200 
ships  sailing  round  Eubcea.  Next  day  fifty  more 
Athenian  ships  joined  the  fleet,  and  the  Greeks  again 
attacked  the  Persians  and  gained  some  little  advan- 
tage. On  the  third  day  the  Persians  did  not  wait  to  be 
attacked,  but  assailed  the  Greeks  fiercely,  and  fought 
an  even  battle.  On  the  morrow  the  Greeks  heard  of 
the  destruction  of  the  Spartans  at  Thermopylae.  Since 
the  army  of  Xerxes  had  passed  Thermopylae,  it  was  of 
no  use  for  the  fleet  to  remain  at  Artemisium  \  they 
therefore  retired  southward  down  the  straits,  sailed 
round  Cape  Sunium,  the  end  of  Attica,  and  took  up 
their  position  off  the  island  of  Salamis  (map,  p.  62). 

26.  Athens  abandoned  and  destroyed. — 
From  Thermopylae  Xerxes  marched  upon  Athens. 
The  Spartans,  instead  of  sending  an  army  to  defend 
Attica,  kept  the  Peloponnesian  forces  at  the  Isthmus 


iv,]  ATHENS  ABANDONED.  69 

of  Corinth  ;  for  they  cared  little  what  became  of 
Athens,  so  long  as  the  Persians  were  kept  out 
of  Peloponnesus.  Forsaken  by  their  allies,  the 
Athenians  had  no  hope  of  being  able  to  defend 
Athens,  and  resolved  to  abandon  the  town,  and  to  re- 
move their  wives  and  children  out  of  Attica  to  places 
of  safety.  The  whole  population,  men,  women,  and 
children,  sorrowfully  left  their  homes,  and  streamed 
down  to  the  sea-shore,  carrying  what  they  could  with 
them.  The  fleet  took  them  over  to  Salamis,  ^Egina, 
and  Trcezene ;  and  when  Xerxes  reached  Athens,  he 
found  it  silent  and  deserted.  A  few  poor  or  desperate 
men  alone  had  refused  to  depart,  and  had  posted 
themselves  behind  a  wooden  fortification  on  the  top 
of  the  Acropolis,  the  fortress  and  sanctuary  of  Athens. 
And  now  vengeance  was  taken  for  Sardis  (p.  56). 
The  Persians  fired  the  fortifications,  stormed  the 
Acropolis,  slaughtered  its  defenders,  and  burnt  every 
holy  place  to  the  ground.  Athens  and  its  citadel 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  barbarians  :  its  inhabitants 
were  scattered,  its  holy  places  destroyed.  One  hope 
alone  remained  to  the  Athenians, — the  ships  which 
Themistokles  had  persuaded  them  to  build. 

27.  Battle  of  Salamis. — As  Xerxes  advanced 
from  Thermopylae  to  Athens,  his  fleet  had  sailed  along 
the  coast,  and  was  now  anchoring  off  Athens,  in  the 
bay  of  Phalerum.  (September,  B.C.  480.)  The  Greek 
fleet  lay  a  few  miles  off  in  the  strait  between  Attica 
and  Salamis  (map,  p.  62) ;  more  ships  had  joined 
it,  raising  the  number  to  366.  Among  the  Greeks 
everything  was  in  uncertainty.  The  Peloponnesian 
captains  wished  to  retreat  to  the  isthmus,  in  order 
to  act  with  the  land  army.  Eurybiades  was  un- 
decided. Themistokles  knew  that  if  the  fleet  once 
left  Salamis  it  would  break  up  altogether,  and  was 
resolved,  by  whatever  means,  to  have  the  battle 
fought  where  they  were.  He  argued  with  Eury- 
biades and  the  Peloponnesian  commanders  ;  he  made 
them  hold  council    after   council ;   he  threatened  to 


jo  SAL  AMIS.  [chap. 

deprive  thern  of  the  200  Athenian  ships  if  they  left 
Salamis  ;  and  at  last,  when  he  saw  all  against  him,  he 
sent  word  secretly  to  Xerxes  that  the  Greeks  would 
escape  if  he  did  not  attack  them  immediately.  Early 
next  morning,  while  it  was  still  dark,  the  commanders 
were  again  assembled  in  council,  when  Themisiokles 
was  called  out  by  a  stranger.  It  was  the  exile  Aris- 
tides,  who,  in  the  ruin  and  distress  of  Athens,  had  come 
to  serve  those  who  had  banished  him,  and  had  made 
his  way  through  the  Persian  fleet  in  the  darkness  to  tell 
the  Greek  commanders  that  they  were  surrounded. 
Aristides  was  brought  in  to  the  council  and  declared 
it  to  be  true.  When  day  broke,  the  Greeks  saw  the 
enemy's  ships  facing  them  all  along  the  narrow  strait, 
and  stretching  far  away  on  die  right  and  left,  cutting 
off  all  escape.  Behind  the  Persian  ships  the  Persian 
army  was  drawn  up  along  the  shore  of  Attica,  and  a 
throne  was  set  in  their  midst,  from  which  Xerxes  sur- 
veyed the  battle.  The  Persian  fleet  advanced,  and 
the  Greeks,  seized  with  terror,  pushed  backwards  to- 
wards the  shore.  But  there  was  no  possibility  of  re- 
treat, and  they  presently  gained  heart  and  advanced. 
The  fleets  closed.  Vessel  crashed  against  vessel.  In 
single  encounters  the  ships  and  crews  of  Greece  were 
seen  overpowering  their  antagonists ;  and  when  once 
the  Greeks  prevailed,  the  numbers  of  the  Persian  ships 
were  their  ruin.  They  were  jammed  together  in  the 
narrow  space.  Beaten  and  disabled  ships  prevented 
others  from  coming  into  action.  Two  hundred  were 
destroyed  under  the  eyes  of  Xerxes,  and  the  rest,  to 
escape  ruin,  fled  out  of  the  straits.  By  sunset  the 
battle  was  over,  and  the  Greeks  prepared  to  renew  the 
fight  on  the  morrow. 

28.  Retreat  of  Xerxes. — But  the  heart  of  Xerxes 
sank.  Though  he  had  still  800  ships,  he  could  bear 
the  war  no  longer.  He  left  300,000  of  his  best  troops 
in  Greece  with  Mardonius,  and  himself,  with  the  rest 
of  the  army,  returned  to  Asia  the  way  he  had  come. 
Fearing  that  the  Greeks  would  break  down  the  bridges 


fF.]  RE  TREA  T  OF  XERXES.  71 

over  the  Hellespont,  he  sent  his  whole  fleet  to  guard  them 
till  his  arrival.  On  the  march  back  through  Thrace, 
thousands  of  his  army  perished  of  hunger  and  disease, 

29.  Victory  in  Sicily. — On  the  same  day  that  the 
battle  of  Salamis  was  fought,  another  great  victory 
was  gained  by  men  of  Greek  race  against  an  invading 
army.  Karthage  (p.  35)  had  united  with  Persia  to  de 
stroy  Greece  ;  and  an  immense  Karthaginian  army  laid 
siege  to  Himera  in  the  north  of  Sicily.  Gelo,  the  tyranl 
of  Syracuse,  marched  with  50,000  men  to  the  relief  uf 
Himera,  and  dealt  the  Karthaginians  such  a  blow  that 
Greece  was  freed  from  all  danger  in  that  quarter. 

30.  Battle  of  Plataea  (B.C.  479).— Mardonius 
and  his  army  passed  the  winter  quietly  in  Thessaly,  for 
the  northern  Greeks  were  still  obedient  to  the  Persians. 
When  summer  came  he  marched  into  Attica.  The 
Athenians  had  come  back  to  their  ruined  homes 
after  the  battle  of  Salamis,  and  the  city  was  partly 
rebuilt  They  expected  help  from  Sparta  on  the 
approach  of  Mardonius,  but  none  came  \  and  Athens 
was  a  second  time  abandoned  and  destroyed.  At 
length  the  Spartans  put  forth  all  their  strength.  They 
summoned  the  land-forces  of  all  the  allies ;  and  an 
army  of  no,ooo  men  marched  against  Mardonius, 
under  Pausanias,  the  guardian  of  Leonidas'  young  son. 
(Sept.  B.C.  479.)  Mardonius  had  his  head-quarters  in 
Thebes,  and  the  Thebans,  out  of  hatred  to  Athens, 
served  zealously  in  the  Persian  army.  Pausanias 
marched  into  Bceotia,  and  for  ten  days  the  armies 
faced  one  another  near 'Plataea.  On  the  eleventh  day 
the  Greeks  could  get  no  more  water.  The  braver  cap 
tains  were  impatient  for  battle  ;  but  Pausanias  dared 
not  attack  the  Persians  where  they  stood,  and  gave 
orders  at  nightfall  to  fall  back  on  a  better  position. 
The  movement  threw  the  Greek  army  into  disorder, 
and  its  three  divisions  were  widely  separated  from  one 
another.  The  next  morning  Mardonius,  seeing  that  the 
Greeks  had  retreated,  ordered  an  attack.  The  Spartans 
andTegeans  (p.  26)  fronted  the  mam  body  of  the  Persian 

7 


72  PLA  7\<EA.  [CHAP. 

army ;  the  Athenians  were  at  some  distance  on  their  left ; 
and  the  third  division  of  the  Greeks  had  retreated 
too  far  to  take  part  in  the  battle.  The  Persians 
advanced  to  within  bowshot,  and,  fixing  their  wooden 
shields  like  a  palisade  in  front  of  them,  poured  flights 
of  arrows  upon  the  Spartans.  It  was  the  custom  o\ 
the  Spartans  before  beginning  a  battle  to  offer  sacri- 
fice, and  to  wait  for  an  omen,  or  sign  from  heaven,  in 
the  offering.  Even  now,  as  the  arrows  fell,  Pausanias 
offered  sacrifice.  The  omens  were  bad,  and  he  dared 
not  advance.  The  Spartans  knelt  behind  their  shields, 
but  the  arrows  pierced  them,  and  the  bravest  men 
died  s  >rrowfully,  lamenting  not  for  death  but  because 
they  died  without  striking  a  blow  for  Sparta.  In  his 
distress  Pausanias  called  on  the  goddess  Hera  :  while 
he  was  still  praying  the  Tegeans  advanced,  and  in- 
stantly the  omens  changed.  Then  the  Spartans  threw 
themselves  upon  the  enemy.  The  palisade  went 
down,  and  the  Asiatics,  laying  aside  their  bows 
fought  desperately  with  javelins  and  daggers.  But 
they  had  no  metal  armour  to  defend  them  ;  and  the 
Spartans,  with  their  lances  fixed  and  their  shields 
touching  one  another,  bore  down  everything  before 
them.  The  Persians  turned  and  fled  to  their  fortified 
camp.  The  Spartans  assaulted  it,  but  they  were 
unskilful  in  attacking  fortifications,  and  the  Persians 
kept  them  at  bay  till  the  Athenians  came  up  victorious 
over  the  Thebans  (p.  7 1).  Then  the  camp  was  stormed, 
and  the  miserable  crowds  who  had  been  driven  into  it 
were  cut  to  pieces.  No  victory  was  ever  more  complete: 
the  Persian  army  was  totally  destroyed,  and  the  in- 
vasion at  an  end.  Out  of  the  immense  spoil  a  tenth 
was  given  to  the  gods.  The  prize  of  valour  was  ad- 
judged to  the  Piataeans;  they  were  charged  with  the  duty 
of  preserving  the  tombs  of  the  slain ;  and  Pausanias, 
by  solemn  oaths,  declared  their  territory,  in  which  the 
battle  had  been  fought,  to  be  sacred  ground  for  ever. 

31.  Battle  of  My  kale. — On  the  same  day  that  the 
battle  of  Plataea  destroyed  the  invaders  of  Greece, 


v.]  MYKALE.  73 

a  battle  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor  put  an  end  to 
the  rule  of  Persia  in  Ionia.  The  Greek  fleet  had 
crossed  to  Asia,  and  met  the  Persian  fleet  at  Mykale, 
near  Miletus.  The  Persian  admiral  would  not  fight 
by  sea :  he  landed  his  crew,  and  hauled  his  ships 
ashore,  and  united  with  a  Persian  army  on  the  land. 
The  Greeks,  who  were  mostly  Athenians,  were  as 
ready  to  fight  by  land  as  by  sea  ;  they  attacked  the 
enemy  on  the  beach,  and  not  only  gained  a  complete 
victory,  but  set  fire  to  the  Persian  ships  and  destroyed 
them.  The  Ionians,  who  had  been  made  to  serve 
with  the  Persians,  went  over  to  the  Greeks  during  the 
battle  \  and  from  that  time  Ionia  was  free. 

32.  What  saved  Greece. — Thus  the  Persians, 
who  had  conquered  so  great  an  empire,  were  com- 
pletely beaten  by  a  small  part  of  Greece.  We  must 
allow  that  this  was  partly  owing  to  the  mistakes  of 
the  Persian  commanders  ;  and  many  things  in  the 
war  did  little  credit  to  Greece.  Many  of  the 
States  submitted  too  easily  to  Xerxes  ;  some  were 
on  his  side  from  the  first :  even  in  those  which  fought 
the  most  resolutely  there  was  generally  a  party 
ready  to  submit  to  Persia  (p.  60).  As  a  rule  the 
Greeks  thought  too  much  about  themselves  and  too 
little  about  the  common  cause.  Sparta,  though  she 
dealt  the  death-blow  at  Plataea,  had  been  slow  and 
untrustworthy  as  the  leader  of  Greece.  But  a  State 
could  hardly  display  greater  courage,  enterprise,  and 
resolution,  than  Athens  did  from  the  beginning  to 
the  end  of  the  war.  It  was  the  energy  of  Athens, 
and  the  habit  of  the  Peloponnesian  States  to  act  in 
union  under  Sparta,  that  made  European  Greece  so 
much  harder  to  conquer  than  Ionia. 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE   EMPIRE  OF  ATHENS  AND  THE  PELOPONNESIAN 
-WAR. 

i.  Walls  round  Athens  and  Piraeus. — After 
the  battle  of  Plataea  the  inhabitants  of  Athens  returned 


74  PAUSANIAS.  [chap. 

to  their  ruined  homes,  and  for  the  second  time  rebuilt 
the  city  (p.  7  i).  Instead  of  rebuilding  their  old  wall, 
however,  Themistokles  persuaded  them  to  build  one 
of  much  greater  circuit,  so  that,  in  case  of  war,  the 
country-people  might  bring  their  goods  and  take  refuge 
within  it.  The  neighbouring  States,  especially  ^Egina 
and  Corinth,  were  jealous  of  the  power  of  Athens ; 
and  when  they  saw  the  strong  fortification  Themis- 
tokles was  making,  they  stirred  up  the  Spartans  to 
interfere  and  put  a  stop  to  it.  But  by  a  trick  of 
Themistokles  the  Spartans  were  kept  from  doing 
anything  until  the  wall  had  risen  high  enough  to  be 
defended.  It  was  then  too  late  for  the  Spartans  to 
interfere,  and  they  had  to  conceal  their  anger.  The 
wall  round  Athens  was  finished,  and  a  still  stronger 
one  was  built  round  Piraeus  (p.  63). 

2.  Pausanias. — The  battle  of  Mykale  had  freed  | 
Ionia,  but  many  places  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor 
and  Thrace  were  still  held  by  the  Persians.  The  chief 
of  these  was  Byzantium,  now  Constantinople.  So 
long  as  Byzantium  belonged  to  the  Persians,  they  could 
send  out  fleets  from  its  harbour  to  injure  Greek  ship- 
ping, and  could  easily  invade  Europe  again.  The 
Greeks  therefore  laid  siege  to  Byzantium,  under  the 
command  of  Pausanias.  The  city  was  taken,  and 
some  kinsmen  of  Xerxes  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Greeks.  And  now  Pausanias  formed  a  treacherous 
plan.  In  the  conquered  camp  at  Plataea  and  in  By- 
zantium he  had  seen  the  splendour  of  Persian  princes  : 
md  as  he  found  out  more  about  Persia,  he  saw  how 
insignificant  Sparta  and  all  the  Greek  States  were  in 
wealth  and  size  when  compared  with  a  great  eastern 
kingdom.  He  grew  discontented,  and  thought  that  he 
might  make  himself  a  great  king  like  the  kings  of  the 
east.  Therefore,  when  Byzantium  was  taken,  he  re- 
leased the  kinsmen  of  Xerxes  unharmed,  and  sent 
Xerxes  a  letter  asking  for  his  daughter  in  marriage, 
and  offering  to  bring  all  Greece  under  the  empire  01 
Persia.     He  be^an  to  behave  as  if  he  were  already  a 


v.]  CONFEDERACY  OF  DEL  OS.  75 

Satrap,  living  in  Persian  luxury,  and  insulting  the 
Greeks  who  served  under  him.  A  report  of  his 
treason  reached  Sparta,  and  he  was  summoned  home. 
Upon  this  the  Ionians  serving  in  the  fleet,  who  had 
been  provoked  by  the  insolence  of  Pausanias,  invited 
the  Athenian  commanders  to  put  themselves  at  the 
head  of  the  Grecian  navy  in  place  of  Sparta.  The 
Athenians  did  so,  and  when  the  successor  of  Pausanias 
arrived  from  Sparta,  he  found  that  nobody  would  obey 
him,  and  returned  home. 

3.  Confederacy  of  Delos  (B.C.  477). — During 
the  Persian  invasion  Sparta  had  been  acknowledged 
as  leader  of  Greece  by  all  the  States  which  fought 
(p.  65);  but  henceforward  there  were  two  great 
Leagues,  one  headed  by  Sparta,  and  one  by  Athens. 
The  Peloponnesian  States  continued  to  follow  Sparta ; 
the  islands  and  many  towns  on  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor 
and  Thrace  joined  the  new  League  under  Athens. 
This  League  was  called  the  Confederacy  of  Delos, 
because  its  deputies  met  at  the  temple  of  Apollo  in 
the  island  of  Delos,  and  its  treasure  was  kept  there. 
The  object  of  the  League  was  to  keep  the  Persians 
out  of  the  iEgaean  Sea.  Each  city  contributed  yearly 
a  certain  number  of  war-ships  with  their  crews,  or 
a  certain  sum  of  money  ;  and  the  man  chosen  to 
fix  what  each  should  contribute  was  the  upright  Aris- 
tides,  who  then  commanded  the  Athenian  fleet  (p.  63). 
There  were  from  the  first  two  great  differences  between 
the  Spartan  and  Athenian  Leagues.  The  States  in 
alliance  with  Sparta  contributed  land  troops,  those  in 
alliance  with  Athens  contributed  ships  ;  and  again, 
Sparta  encouraged  oligarchical  governments  every- 
where, Athens  encouraged  democratical  governments. 
Thus  in  the  same  city  the  party  of  the  nobles  was  often 
in  favour  of  Sparta,  the  party  of  the  common  people 
in  favour  of  Athens.  The  great  mistake  in  the  Con- 
federacy of  Delos  was  that  some  of  the  States  were 
allowed  to  contribute  money  instead  of  ships  and 
men.      From  this  it   came  about  that  other  States, 


76  THEMISTOKLES.  [chap. 

which  had  originally  contributed  ships,  arranged  to 
contribute  money  instead,  in  order  to  avoid  the  trou- 
ble and  danger  of  naval  service.  This  made  them  the 
subjects  instead  of  the  free  allies  of  Athens.  So  long 
as  they  kept  up  their  ships  they  had  the  means  of  de- 
fending themselves  if  Athens  did  them  wrong;  but  when 
they  sent  money  instead  of  ships,  they  lost  all  control 
over  Athens,  and  the  money  became  like  a  tribute  to 
Athens  instead  of  the  common  property  of  the  League. 
In  course  of  time  the  meetings  of  the  deputies  ceased  ; 
the  treasure-house  was  removed  from  Delos  to  Athens 
(b.c.  459),  and  a  great  part  of  the  money  was  spent  in 
paying  the  Athenians  for  attending  to  public  affairs, 
and  in  making  Athens  beautiful.  This  change  came 
about  gradually  ;  at  first  the  smaller  States  bad  no 
reason  to  complain  of  Athens.  The  war  was  con- 
tinued against  Persia ;  the  places  which  Persia  still 
held  round  the  ^Egaean  oea  were  conquered  one  after 
another;  and  in  B.C.  466,  Kimon,  the  Athenian  gene- 
ral, gained  a  double  victory  over  the  Persians  by  land 
and  by  sea,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Eurymedon, 
on  the  south  coast  of  Asia  Minor.  The  first  signs 
of  discontent  with  Athens  appeared  in  this  same 
year :  Naxos  (p.  58)  revolted  from  the  League,  and 
was  forced  to  join  it  again. 

4.  Pausanias. — Pausn  mas,  when  he  reachedSparta 
(P-  75)?  was  tried  for  treason,  but  not  condemned.  He 
returned  to  Asia  Minor,  and  tried  to  persuade  some 
of  the  States  there  to  join  him  in  his  plans.  The 
Spartans  again  made  him  return  ;  and  now  he  began 
to  plot  with  the  Helots  for  overthrowing  the  govern- 
ment of  Sparta.  At  last  the  ephors  (p.  .23)  contrived 
to  overhear  him  speaking  to  one  of  his  slaves,  and  what 
they  heard  convinced  them  of  his  treason.  He  took 
refuge  in  a  temple,  and  was  starved  to  death  (b  c.  467). 

5.  Themistokles, — The  ephors  discovered  that 
Themistokies  was  mixed  up  with  the  treason  of  Pau- 
sanias. With  all  his  wonderful  powers  of  mind,  The- 
mistokies had  little  feeling  of  honour.     He  had  neve* 


v.]  PARTIES.  77 

cared  whether  what  he  did  was  upright  or  not,  so  long 
as  it  gained  his  end  ;  and  when  the  war  was  over  he 
had  used  his  great  power  to  extort  money  for  himself 
from  the  weaker  States.  His  injustice  and  his  boast- 
fulness  made  him  hated  at  Athens,  and  in  B.C.  471  he 
was  ostrakised,  and  went  to  live  at  Argos.  When  he 
found  that  his  share  in  the  treason  of  Pausanias  was 
discovered,  he  fled,  and  made  his  way  through  many 
dangers  to  Susa,  the  capital  of  the  Persian  empire. 
Xerxes  was  just  dead,  and  his  son  Artaxerxes  was 
king.  Themistokles  wrote  a  letter  to  king  Artaxerxes, 
saying  that  though  he  had  done  more  than  any  man 
to  injure  Xerxes,  he  could  do  services  to  Persia  that 
should  be  equally  great.  The  king  gladly  received 
him,  and  gave  him  great  wealth.  It  was  expected 
that  Themistokles,  who  never  failed  in  what  he  under- 
took, would  enable  the  Persians  to  conquer  Greece :  but 
he  died  without  attempting  it.  He  died  an  exile  and  a 
Persian  hireling,  because  he  had  set  money  and  power 
above  justice  and  the  love  of  country  :  but  never  was  a 
little  State  made  into  a  great  one  more  truly  by  a 
single  man  than  Athens  by  Themistokles. 

6.  Parties  at  Athens.  —  When  the  Athenians 
abandoned  their  country  (p.  69),  all  able-bodied  citi- 
zens, rich  and  poor  alike,  had  served  on  board  the 
fleet  at  Salamis.  The  share  which  the  poor  people  had 
in  winning  that  great  victory  made  them  consider  that 
they  had  done  as  much  for  Athens  as  the  rich,  and 
that  they  ought  not  to  be  kept  out  of  the  offices  of 
the  State,  as  they  were  by  the  present  constitution 
(pp.  41,  45).  Aristides,  the  head  of  the  party  of  the  rich 
and  noble,  which  tried  to  keep  to  old  ways  (p.  63), 
saw  that  the  constitution  would  have  to  be  changed, 
and  proposed  the  change  himself,  in  order  to  keep 
more  hasty  people  from  taking  it  into  their  hands. 
From  this  time  the  poorest  citizen  might  be  elected  to 
the  archonchips  or  other  offices,  and  Athens  was 
more  a  democracy  than  before  (p.  47).  After  the 
death  of  Aristides  (b.c.  468),  the  leader  of  the  party 


7S  PERIKLES.  [chap, 

of  the  nobles  was  Kimon,  son  of  Miltiades,  a  good 
general  and  a  very  honest  man.  He  and  his  followers 
were  very  friendly  to  Sparta,  and  wished  that  Athens 
and  Sparta,  with  their  leagues,  should  unite  to  carry  on 
war  against  Persia,  and  do  no  harm  to  one  another. 

7.  Perikles. — The  leader  of  the  opposite  party  was 
Perikles,  a  noble  of  the  Alkmseonid  clan.  Perikles 
thought  that  everything  in  Athens  had  changed  so 
much  since  the  beginning  of  the  Persian  wars,  that 
what  was  the  right  government  some  years  back  could 
not  be  the  right  government  now.  Athens  was  then 
a  little  quiet  inland  town.  Its  citizens  were  mostly 
small  farmers,  who  only  came  into  the  city  occasionally 
(p.  43),  and  might  well  leave  State  affairs  to  wealthier 
men,  if  they  could  keep  their  crops  out  of  the  hands  of 
the  usurer.  Now,  Athens  was  a  great  commercial  city  ; 
a  new  town  had  sprung  up  on  the  sea  (p.  63),  thronged 
with  enterprising,  quick-witted  traders;  its  merchant- 
ships  were  in  every  port  of  Greece  ;  its  navy  had 
proved  itself  the  strongest  power  in  the  world  ;  it  was 
at  the  head  of  a  league  that  covered  the  ^Egaean  Sea. 
Athens  had  become  a  ruling  city,  and  Perikles 
thought  that  its  citizens  ought  to  be  a  race  capable 
of  ruling  both  themselves  and  their  empire.  He 
thought  that  the  commonest  citizen  might  be  made 
intelligent  and  sensible  by  education,  by  attending  to 
the  speeches  made  in  the  Assembly,  by  practice  as  a 
juryman  in  trials,  and  by  sharing  in  the  daily  life  of 
his  fellow-citizens,  who  had  almost  every  kind  of  talent 
among  them.  He  thought,  too,  that  the  great  mass  of 
citizens,  if  guided  by  wise  statesmen,  would  form  a 
better  judgment  on  what  was  good  for  Athens  than 
the  small  body  of  the  nobles  or  the  rich.  He  had  no 
confidence  that  the  nobles  either  wished  to  keep  Athens 
in  its  new  greatness  or  understood  how  to  do  so.  Their 
love  for  past  times  seemed  to  him  rather  a  drawback 
than  an  advantage,  and  their  regard  for  Sparta  dan- 
gerous to  Athens.  He  saw  clearly  that  Sparta  would 
Mways  be  the  jealous   enemy  of  Athens;    and  though 


v.]  CHANGES  MADE  BY  PERIKLES.  79 

he  had  no  desire  to  hurry  on  a  war,  he  knew  that  Ki- 
mon's  attempt  to  keep  on  good  terms  with  Sparta  must 
fail,  and  he  wished  Athens  to  make  itself  as  strong  as 
possible  before  the  conflict  should  break  out. 

8.  Changes  at  Athens. — Kimon  and  his  party  had 
at  first  the  upper  hand.  About  B.C.  462  there  was  an 
earthquake  in  Sparta,  and  the  Helots  revolted.  Sparta, 
in  great  danger,  begged  help  of  Athens,  and  Kimon 
persuaded  the  people  to  send  him  with  a  large  force 
to  help  the  Spartans.  But  after  some  time  the  Spartans 
suspected  that  the  Athenian  troops  were  playing  them 
false,  and  sent  them  away.  This  insult  exasperated 
the  Athenians  against  Sparta.  Kimon,  the  friend  of 
Sparta,  lost  all  his  power,  and  the  party  of  Perikles 
carried  everything  before  them.  They  took  from  the 
Areopagus,  in  which  the  nobles  were  so  powerful 
(p.  41),  the  right  of  forbidding  new  laws,  and  of 
interfering  with  the  citizens  ;  and  they  carried  a 
measure  giving  regular  pay  to  the  citizens  for  attend- 
ing the  Assembly  and  for  serving  on  juries,  in  order  that 
poor  men  might  be  willing  to  give  up  their  time  to 
it,  and  the  whole  business  of  the  State  be  more  than 
ever  conducted  by  the  citizens  themselves.  The 
alliance  with  Sparta  was  broken  off,  and  an  alliance 
made  with  Argos,  the  enemy  of  Sparta.  Kimon 
himself  was  ostrakised  B.C.  459. 

9.  Wars. — The  Athenians  also  made  alliance  with 
Megara,  because  in  the  mountains  of  Megara  it  would 
be  easier  for  them  to  resist  an  army  coming  from  Pelo- 
ponnesus. Upon  this  Corinth  and  yEgina  declared  war 
with  Athens.  The  Athenians  gained  a  naval  victory, 
and  blockaded  ^Egina.  At  the  same  time  the  Athe- 
nians had  a  large  army  in  Egypt  fighting  against  the 
Persians ;  and  the  Corinthians,  knowing  that  all  the 
Athenian  troops  were  occupied,  invaded  Megara 
(b.c.  458).  The  "boys  and  old  men," — that  is,  the  citi- 
zens who  were  at  home  because  they  were  too  young 
or  too  old  to  be  serving  in  the  army, — marched 
out    from    Athens    and     completely     defeated    the 


80  ATHENIAN  WARS.  [chap. 

Corinthians.  Part  of  an  inscription  still  remains  which 
gives  the  names  of  the  Athenians  who  were  killed  in 
battle  in  this  year.  In  this  one  year  they  were  fight- 
ing in  Cyprus,  in  Egypt,  in  Phoenicia,  in  Megara,  and 
off  ^Egina  and  the  coast  of  Peloponnesus.  It  was 
their  triumph  over  the  Persians  that  filled  the  Athe- 
nian people  with  this  wonderful  spirit  and  enterprise 
They  felt  as  if  nothing  was  too  difficult  for  them. 

10.  Bceotia. — Most  of  the  towns  of  Bceotia  were 
united  in  a  League  of  which  Thebes  was  the  head. 
Plataea  had  always  struggled  to  get  free  from  the  League, 
and  had  at  last  succeeded,  by  allying  itself  with 
Athens  (p.  59).  This,  together  with  other  causes,  made 
Thebes  the  bitterest  enemy  of  Athens.  The  govern- 
ment of  Thebes  was  oligarchical,  and  it  could  only 
maintain  the  League  by  establishing  oligarchical 
governments  in  the  other  towns  (p.  75).  To  assist 
the  Thebans  in  doing  this,  a  Spartan  army  was  sent 
into  Bceotia  (b.c.  457),  and  the  oligarchical  party  in 
Athens  took  the  occasion  to  make  a  conspiracy  with 
Sparta.  The  Spartan  army  was  to  surprise  Athens  on 
its  march  back  from  Bceotia,  and  to  give  the  govern- 
ment to  the  nobles.  But  the  Athenians  discovered  the 
conspiracy,  and  sent  out  an  army  to  meet  the  Spartans 
A  battle  was  fought  at  Tanagra,  and  though  the 
Athenians  were  beaten,  the  Spartans  did  not  dare  to 
enter  Athens.  Two  months  afterwards  the  Athenians 
marched  into  Bceotia,  defeated  the  Thebans,  and  over- 
threw the  oligarchies  in  all  the  Boeotian  towns,  establish- 
ing democracies  in  their  place.  These  democracies 
were  really  like  subjects  of  Athens,  and  in  Phokis  and 
Lokris  the  state  of  affairs  was  much  the  same  ;  so  that 
the  Athenians  now  in  fact  governed  as  far  as  Ther- 
mopylae. In  B.C.  455  ^Egina  was  taken,  and  made  to 
pay  tribute. 

11.  Long  Walls. — Two  great  walls  were  now 
made,  running  the  whole  distance  between  Athens  and 
Piraeus, — a  distance  of  more  than  four  miles — 
ibout  two  hundred  yards   apart   from   one   another 


v.]  LONG  WALLS.  8l 

These  walls  immensely  increased  the  power  of 
Athens,  for  they  made  it  impossible  for  any  land 
army  to  surround  Athens  so  as  to  deprive  it  of 
food.  As  long  as  these  walls  were  not  taken,  there 
was  a  safe  passage  between  Athens  and  Piraeus  ;  and 
the  Athenians,  unless  they  lost  their  command  of  the 
sea,  could  bring  food  to  Piraeus  in  ships,  from  which 
it  could  be  safely  carried  to  Athens  between  the 
walls,  even  if  an  army  surrounded  Athens  on  the 
land  side.  In  B.C.  452  a  truce  was  made  with  Sparta 
for  five  years,  and  the  power  of  Athens  was  now  at 
its  height.  But  in  B.C.  447  the  nobles  of  the  Boeotian 
towns,  who  had  been  driven  out  by  the  Athenians,  re- 
covered their  power,  and  defeated  the  Athenians  at 
Coronea.  The  Athenians  lost  all  control  over  Bceotia, 
Phokis,  and  Lokris ;  and  at  the  same  moment  Euboea 
and  Megara  revolted.  The  five  years'  truce  was 
finished,  and  the  Spartans  invaded  Attica.  Athens 
was  in  great  danger,  but  was  saved  by  Perikles,  who 
bribed  the  Spartan  leaders  to  retreat,  and  subdued 
Eubcea.  Peace  was  made  with  Sparta  for  thirty  years 
(b.c.  445),  Athens  giving  up  all  control  over  Bceotia 
and  the  other  States  on  the  mainland,  so  that  its 
subjects  and  allies  were  now  entirely  maritime  (p.  75). 
About  the  same  time  the  war  with  Persia  ended. 

12.  Athens  under  Perikles. — For  the  next  ten 
years  Perikles,  holding  the  office  of  Strategus,  directed 
everything  at  Athens.  He  did  not  place  himself 
above  the  laws,  like  a  tyrant,  and  make  the  people 
obey  him  by  force ;  but,  remaining  a  simple  citizen,  he 
was  able  to  rule  the  people  through  his  eloquence  and 
his  wisdom,  and  above  all  through  the  perfect  nobleness 
of  his  character.  In  making  Athens  treat  her  allies 
like  subjects,  and  in  giving  the  citizens  pay  for  attend- 
ing to  public  business,  he  was  no  doubt  wrong ;  and 
he  was  mistaken  in  thinking  that  the  people  might  be 
trusted  to  follow  a  wise  leader  in  preference  to  a 
foolish  one.  But  no  man  ever  devoted  his  life 
more  high-mi ndedly,  and   with  less  thought  of   self, 


82  ATHENS  UNDER  PERIKLES.  [chap, 

to  the  service  of  his  country ;  and  for  this,  and  for 
the  great  wisdom  and  success  of  his  management 
generally,  and  still  more  for  the  noble  idea  which  he 
had  of  raising  all  Athenian  citizens  to  intelligence  and 
good  taste,  Perikles  is  often  considered  the  finest  of 
all  Greek  statesmen.  One  part  of  the  work  of  Perikles 
will  never  be  out  of  date.  The  best  men  in  England 
and  other  free  countries  in  our  own  day  have  the  same 
feeling  as  Perikles  had  towards  the  people.  Like 
Perikles,  they  wish  to  see  the  whole  people,  poor  as 
well  as  rich,  taking  their  fair  share  in  the  government, 
and  interested  in  what  goes  on  in  the  State ;  and  they 
believe  that  the  happiness  of  a  country  will  depend 
more  than  anything  else  upon  the  education  and  im- 
provement of  the  people.  The  means  by  which 
Perikles  tried  to  improve  the  people  were  not  those 
which  we  are  used  to  in  England,  such  as  schools  and 
clubs  for  helping  one  another,  but  they  were  those 
which  seemed  most  natural  to  a  Greek.  More  than 
any  man  Perikles  gave  to  the  Athenians  that  love  of 
knowledge,  of  poetry,  and  of  art,  which  remained  to 
them  when  their  military  greatness  was  gone,  and 
which,  more  than  its  military  greatness,  has  made 
Athens  of  service  to  mankind.  He  did  not  give  the 
people  book-learning,  for  little  book-learning  existed 
in  those  days  \  but  he  tried  to  wake  up  all  their  facul- 
ties by  making  their  daily  life  bright  and  active  instead 
of  dull  and  listless,  and  by  giving  as  much  interest  and 
nobleness  as  possible  to  the  things  in  which  the  whole 
people  joined,  such  as  the  worship  of  the  gods  and  the 
public  amusements.  Under  his  guidance,  the  temples 
and  statues  of  the  gods,  which  helped  to  give  the 
Greeks  their  idea  of  the  gods,  were  made  grand,  beau- 
tiful, and  calm.  Pictures  were  painted  in  public 
places  of  the  actions  of  the  gods  on  behalf  of  Athens, 
and  of  the  greatest  events  in  Athenian  history. 
Plays,  written  by  great  poets,  were  performed  at  the 
cost  of  the  Stale  in  a  large  open  building  before  multi- 
tudes of  people  :  the  serious  ones,  called  Tragedies, 


v.J  ATHENS  UNDER  PERIKLES.  83 

represented  some  sorrowful  story  of  the  heroes ;  the 
amusing  ones,  called  Comedies,  often  had  to  do  with 
present  affairs.  These  plays  not  only  gave  the  peoph* 
pleasure,  and  helped  to  make  them  dislike  coarse  and 
stupid  entertainments,  but  set  them  thinking,  just  as 
reading  a  book  does  now.  The  earliest  great  tragic 
poet  was  JEschylus,  who  fought  at  the  battle  of  Mara- 
thon. His  plays  are  very  solemn ;  there  are  very  few 
characters,  and  they  speak  in  a  very  stately  way.  The 
next,  Sophocles,  put  more  action  into  his  plays,  and 
made  his  characters  act  and  speak  more  like  real 
human  beings.  After  him  came  Euripides,  the  most 
tender  of  all  the  tragic  poets.  The  greatest  comic 
poet,  rather  later  than  this,  was  Aristophanes,  whose 
plays  are  still  most  amusing.  He  disliked  the  changes 
that  had  been  made  at  Athens,  and  laughed  at  the 
new-fashioned  statesmen.  The  study  of  nature  was 
also  beginning  at  Athens.  It  had  been  going  on  for 
some  time  in  Ionia  (p.  49),  but  Athens  was  fast  be- 
coming the  meeting-place  for  all  the  cleverest  men 
in  Greece.  The  ordinary  Athenians,  however,  thought 
it  wicked  to  study  nature,  because  they  believed,  for 
instance,  that  the  sun  was  a  god.  An  Ionian  named 
Anaxagoras,  the  friend  and  teacher  of  Penkles,  nar- 
rowly escaped  being  put  to  death  because  he  said  that 
the  sun  was  made  of  stones,  like  the  earth.  Thus 
the  search  for  knowledge  was  only  now  beginning  in 
Athens,  and  the  people  were  still  superstitious  \  but 
the  poetry  and  the  art  of  the  time  of  Perikles  have 
been  a  model  of  beauty  to  mankind  ever  since. 

13.  Contrast  of  Athens  and  Sparta. — While 
Perikles  was  adorning  Athens,  Sparta  remained  like  a 
plain  village,  without  public  buildings  (p.  21) ;  and  the 
contrast  in  the  life  of  the  Spartans  and  of  the  Athe- 
nians was  as  great  as  the  contrast  in  the  appearance 
of  the  two  cities.  The  life  of  the  Athenians  was  full 
of  variety  :  quickness  and  enterprise  had  become  part 
of  their  nature.  The  Spartans,  on  the  contrary,  kept 
to  their  rough  military  life  and  their  old-iashiontd 
8 


84  PELOPONNESIAN  WAR.  [chap. 

rules.    They  had  little  education,  and  thought  of  little 
beyond  making  themselves  steady  soldiers. 

14.  Peloponnesian  War. — In  B.C.  431  the  wai 
broke  out  between  Athens  and  the  Peloponnesian 
League,  which,  after  twenty-seven  years,  ended  in  the 
ruin  of  the  Athenian  empire.  It  began  through  a 
quarrel  between  Corinth  and  Kerkyra,  in  which  Athens 
assisted  Kerkyra.  A  congress  was  held  at  Sparta ; 
Corinth  and  other  States  complained  of  the  conduct 
of  Athens,  and  war  was  decided  on.  The  real  cause 
of  the  war  was  that  Sparta  and  its  allies  were  jealous 
of  the  great  power  that  Athens  had  gained.  A  far 
greater  number  of  Greek  States  were  engaged  in  this 
war  than  had  ever  been  engaged  in  a  single  under- 
taking before.  States  that  had  taken  no  part  in  the 
Persian  war  were  now  fighting  on  one  side  or  the 
other.  Sparta  was  an  oligarchy,  and  the  friend  of 
the  nobles  everywhere;  Athens  was  a  democracy,  and 
the  friend  of  the  common  people  ;  so  that  the  war  was 
to  some  extent  a  struggle  between  these  classes  all 
over  Greece,  and  often  within  the  same  city  walls  the 
nobles  and  the  people  attacked  one  another,  the 
nobles  being  for  Sparta,  and  the  people  for  Athens. 

15.  Powers  of  Athens  and  Sparta. — On  the 
side  of  Sparta,  when  the  war  began,  there  was  all  Pelo- 
ponnesus except  Argos  and  Achaea,  and  also  the 
oligarchical  Boeotian  League  under  Thebes  (p.  80), 
besides  Phokis,  Lokris,  and  other  States  west  of  them. 
They  were  very  strong  by  land,  but  the  Corinthians 
alone  had  a  good  fleet.  Later  on  we  shall  see 
the  powerful  State  of  Syracuse  (p.  35),  with  its  navy, 
acting  with  Sparta.  On  the  side  of  Athens  there  were 
almost  all  the  /Egaian  islands,  and  a  great  number  of 
the  /Egaean  coast  towns,  as  well  as  Kerkyra  and  certain 
States  in  the  west  of  Greece.  The  Athenians  had  also 
made  alliance  with  Sitalkes,  the  barbarian  king  of  the 
interior  of  Thrace.  Athens  was  far  stronger  by  sea 
than  Sparta,  but  had  not  such  a  strong  land  army. 
On  the  other  hand  it  had  a  large  treasure,  and  a 


r.]  PLANS  OF  PERIKLES.  85 

system  of  taxes,  while  the  Spartan  League  had  little  or 
no  money.  In  character  the  Athenians  had  the  ad- 
vantage, for  they  were  ready  for  anything,  and  made  the 
most  of  every  chance,  while  the  Spartans  were  slow, 
and  would  not  change  their  ways.  But  Sparta  had  a 
great  superiority  in  this,  that  its  allies  were  acting 
with  a  good  will,  while  many  of  the  so-called  allies  of 
the  Athenians  were  really  not  their  allies  at  all,  but 
their  subjects  :  and  in  almost  every  city,  though  the 
common  people  were  usually  in  favour  of  Athens,  the 
nobles  were  eager  to  rise  against  her.  The  Spartans 
gave  out  that  they  made  war  in  order  to  break  down 
the  tyranny  of  Athens  and  to  restore  freedom  to 
all  Greek  States. 

16.  Plans  of  Perikles  and  of  Sparta. — As 
Sparta  was  much  stronger  by  land,  and  Athens  by  sea, 
Perikles  advised  the  Athenians  never  to  fight  a  battle 
by  land,  but,  when  the  Spartans  invaded  Attica,  to 
take  refuge  within  Athens  and  to  allow  the  Spartans  to 
ravage  the  country.  The  long  walls  would  enable  the 
Athenians  to  import  their  food  by  sea,  so  that  the 
destruction  of  the  crops  would  be  of  little  matter ; 
and  they  could  do  more  harm  to  Sparta  than  Sparta 
could  do  to  them,  by  making  sudden  descents  by 
sea  upon  places  in  Peloponnesus.  This  was  how 
Perikles  wished  to  carry  on  the  war;  and  he  advised 
the  Athenians  to  be  content  with  keeping  their 
empire  over  the  islands,  and  not  to  attempt  great 
conquests  on  the  mainland  or  in  distant  places.  The 
Spartans,  on  the  other  hand,  hoped  to  exhaust  the  Athe- 
nians by  ravaging  their  country  year  after  year,  and  to 
deprive  them  of  the  money  which  they  received  in 
tribute,  by  persuading  their  subjects  to  revolt. 

17.  Invasions  of  Attica.  Plague.— In  the 
summer  of  B.C.  431  the  Spartans  invaded  Attica  and 
destroyed  the  crops,  but  no  battle  was  fought.  The 
next  year  they  again  invaded  it ;  and  when  the  people 
were  crowded  within  the  walls  of  Athens,  a  plague 
broke  out,  which  killed  great  numbers.     The  strength 


86  DEATH  OF  PERIKLES.  [chap. 

of  Athens  was  only  reduced  for  the  moment ;  but  it  is 
probable  that  the  plague  affected  the  whole  future  his- 
tory of  Athens  by  destroying  many  of  the  men  who 
had  been  trained  by  Perikles,  and  who,  at  his  death, 
would  have  kept  the  State  in  the  wise  course  which 
Perikles  had  laid  down  for  it.  The  Spartans  invaded 
Attica  again  in  three  out  of  the  next  five  years. 

18.  Death  of  Perikles. — Perikles  died  in  B.C.  429. 
Some  time  before  his  death  the  Athenians  had  turned 
against  him  and  unjustly  condemned  him  to  pay  a  fine  j 
but  they  repented,  and  Perikles  was  again  set  at  the 
head  of  the  State.  After  his  death  there  was  no  man  like 
him  in  Athens.  Demagogues  arose  (Srjfjaywyo^ — Srjfdoc, 
people,  LyiuyoQ,  leader),  men  who,  without  real  know- 
ledge, set  themselves  up  as  the  leaders  of  the  people 
and  got  on  by  making  effective  speeches.  Perikles  had 
often  withstood  the  people,  and  told  them  fearlessly 
when  they  were  wrong.  The  demagogues,  on  the  other 
hand,  depended  on  the  favour  of  the  people,  and  said 
what  they  thought  the  people  would  like  to  hear.  The 
chief  of  them  was  Kleon,  a  tanner.  The  nobles,  for 
their  part,  had  clubs,  through  which  they  tried  to  keep 
the  direction  of  the  State  in  their  own  hands  ;  and 
the  demagogues  were  like  the  natural  leaders  of 
the  people  against  these  clubs  of  the  nobles. 

19.  Siege  of  Platsea  (b.c  429-427). — In  the  third 
year  of  the  war,  the  Spartan  king,  Archidamus,  laid  siege 
to  Plataea  with  a  large  army,  in  spite  of  the  oath  taken 
by  Pausanias  (p. 7  2),  because  Platasa  had  always  resisted 
the  attempts  of  Thebes  to  govern  the  Boeotian  towns, 
and  allied  itself  with  Athens  for  protection  against 
Thebes.  The  garrison  consisted  of  only  400  Piataeans 
and  80  Athenians;  but  they  made  so  good  a  de- 
fence that  Archidamus  gave  up  all  hope  of  taking 
the  town  by  storm,  and  built  a  double  wall  round 
it,  in  order  to  take  it  by  famine.  When  the  siege 
had  been  going  on  for  more  than  a  year,  and 
provisions  were  running  short,  part  of  the  garrison 
resolved  to  break  their  way  out  through  the  Spartans 


v.]  PHORMIO.  87 

In  the  middle  of  a  stormy  winter's  night  they  stole 
out  of  the  town  gate,  carrying  ladders  with  »hem,  and 
came  up  to  the  Spartan  wall  unperceived.  Thev  set 
their  ladders  to  the  wall  and  mounted  it  surprised 
and  killed  the  Spartan  sentinels  on  the  top  of  thf 
wall,  and  escaped  through  the  very  midst  of  the  Spar- 
tans, with  the  exception  of  a  single  man  who  wa? 
taken  prisoner.  This  brave  act  enabled  the  rest  ol 
the  garrison  to  hold  out  for  some  time  longer;  but  at 
last  their  food  came  to  an  end,  and  they  had  to  sur- 
render. The  Spartans  put  them  all  to  death,  in  order 
to  please  theThebans,and  razed  the  town  to  the  ground. 
20.  Phormio's  Victories.  —  In  the  west  of 
Greece  both  the  Athenians  and  the  Peloponnesians  had 
allies.  After  the  revolt  of  the  Helots,  in  B.C.  462  (p.  79), 
the  Athenians  had  settled  a  body  of  Messenian  exiles, 
the  bitterest  enemies  of  Sparta,  at  Naupaktus,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Corinthian  Gulf;  and  the  harbour  of 
Naupaktus  enabled  an  Athenian  fleet  to  be  kept  in 
these  waters.  Further  west,  Akarnania  was  in 
alliance  with  Athens,  Amprakia  with  Sparta.  The 
Spartans  planned  an  expedition  against  Akarnania 
both  by  land  and  sea.  The  land  attack  failed ;  and 
Phormio,  the  commander  of  the  Athenian  fleet  at 
Naupaktus,  gained  two  most  striking  victories  over 
the  Peloponnesians  by  sea.  In  the  first  battle 
Phormio,  with  twenty  ships,  beat  the  Peloponnesians 
with  forty-seven  ;  in  the  second  the  Peloponnesians 
had  seventy-seven,  and  Phormio  only  twenty,  as  before. 
Phormio  won  the  first  battle  by  moving  his  ships  about 
quickly :  he  was  an  excellent  commander,  and  the 
Athenian  crews  were  so  well  trained  that  they  could 
do  things  of  which  the  Peloponnesians  had  no  idea 
Accordingly  in  the  second  battle  the  Peloponne* 
sians  tried  to  drive  Phormio  close  ashore,  where  his 
skill  would  be  of  no  avail.  Nine  of  his  ships  were  thus 
cut  off  from  the  sea,  and  were  beaten  ,  but  the  other 
eleven  escaped  into  the  harbour  of  Naupaktus,  and, 
turning    suddenly   round    upon   the   victorious    and 


88  SPHAKTERIA,  [cha*. 

pursuing  Peloponnesian  fleet,  beat  its  divisions  one 
after  the  other,  capturing  six  ships,  and  rescuing  those 
of  their  own  nine  which  had  been  captured  in  the  first 
part  of  die  battle  (b.c.  429). 

21.  Revolt  of  Mytilene. — In  b.c.  428  the  island 
of  Lesbos,  with  its  chief  place,  Mytilene,  revolted  from 
Athens.  The  Athenians  blockaded  Mytilene  by  land 
and  sea,  and  the  Spartans  were  slow  in  sending  help. 
Mytilene  surrendered,  and  Kleon  persuaded  the  Athen- 
ians to  send  an  order  that  every  grown-up  man  should 
be  put  to  death.  Next  day  the  Athenians  repented 
of  their  cruelty,  and  another  order  was  sent  off,  which 
arrived  just  in  time  to  save  the  Mytileneans.  Still  the 
Athenians  had  a  thousand  of  them  killed. 

22.  Demosthenes. — The  Messenians  at  Nau- 
paktus  persuaded  Demosthenes,  an  Athenian  general, 
to  invade  a  territory  of  the  ^Etolians,  their  neigh- 
bours and  enemies.  Demosthenes,  who  was  very 
bold  and  adventurous,  hoped  not  only  to  conquer 
^Etolia,  but  to  go  on  marching  eastward,  and  reduce 
all  the  country  along  the  north  of  the  Corinthian 
Gulf  between  Naupaktus  and  Attica.  But  the  land 
of  the  ^Etolians  proved  too  rugged  for  an  army  to 
cross,  and  Demosthenes  had  to  turn  back,  after 
losing  a  considerable  number  of  men.  Soon,  how- 
ever, he  made  full  amends  for  his  error ;  for,  when 
the  Spartans  and  Amprakiots  again  attacked  Akar- 
nania  by  land,  Demosthenes  dealt  the  Amprakiots 
one  of  the  most  ruinous  defeats  known  in  Greek 
history,  and  forced  the  Spartans  to  give  up  the  war 
in  that  district  (b.c.  426). 

23.  Sphakteria. — Soon  after  this,  Demosthenes 
seized  and  fortified  the  promontory  of  Pylus  on  the 
west  coast  of  Messenia,  in  order  to  ravage  the  country 
and  excite  the  Helots  to  revolt  (b.c.  425).  The  Spar- 
tans in  consequence  laid  siege  to  Pylus,  and  placed 
some  of  their  troops  on  an  island  called  Sphakteria, 
close  to  Pylus.  But  a  large  Athenian  fleet  came  to  the 
help   of  Demosthenes,  and   drove   the  Spartan  ships 


v  ]  KERKYRA.  89 

ashore>  so  that  the  troops  on  the  island  of  Sphakteria 
had  no  means  of  getting  oft'  again,  and  were  caught  in  a 
*rap.  Among  them  were  many  of  the  noblest  Spar- 
tans, and  there  was  no  possibility  of  rescuing  them 
from  the  island.  So  great  was  the  dismay  caused  by 
this  at  Sparta,  that  the  ephors  tried  to  make  peace 
with  Athens  ;  but  the  Athenians,  persuaded  by  Kleon, 
asked  unreasonable  terms.  Kleon  was  now  made 
general  himself,  and  had  the  glory  of  bringing  the 
Spartans  on  the  island  prisoners  to  Athens,  although 
the  work  was  really  done  by  Demosthenes.  Their 
surrender  greatly  lowered  the  fame  of  Sparta,  for  it 
had  hitherto  been  believed  that  Spartan  soldiers  would 
rather  die  than  surrender.  Soon  afterwards  the  Athe- 
nians, under  Nikias,  conquered  the  island  of  Kythera, 
off  the  south-east  end  of  Peloponnesus.  Possessing  this, 
they  could  ravage  the  Spartan  coast  at  their  pleasure. 

24.  Massacres  at  Kerkyra. — The  nobles  of 
Kerkyra,  which  was  a  democracy,  conspired  to  put 
down  the  democracy,  and  break  off  the  alliance  with 
Athens  (p.  84).  They  killed  the  leaders  of  the  people, 
and  seized  on  the  arsenal  and  the  docks.  But  the  people 
attacked  and  defeated  them,  and  for_seven  days  the 
city  was  given  up  to  vengeance  and  bloodshed.  Five 
hundred  of  the  nobles,  however,  escaped,  and  fortified 
a  hill  outside  the  town.  There  they  were  blockaded  by 
the  people,  whom  the  Athenians  assisted,  and  they  sur- 
rendered on  condition  of  being  sent  to  trial  at  Athens. 
Instead  of  this  they  were  all  murdered.  This  is  the 
worst  instance  of  the  furious  hatred  which  the  war 
caused  between  the  parties  of  the  nobles  and  the 
people  in  the  Greek  cities. 

25.  Bceotia  and  Thrace.  Brasidas.  —  The 
success  of  the  Athenians  at  Sphakteria  filled  them 
with  unreasonable  pride  ;  and  they  now  thought  oi 
regaining  the  power  on  the  mainland  which  they  had 
possessed  between  B.C.  457  and  b.c.  447  (p.  81),  and 
which  Perikles  had  advised  them  not  to  attempt  to 
recover.      They    accordingly    invaded    Bceotia    (b.c 


CK>  PEACE  OF  NIK  I  AS.  [chap. 

424),  but  were  completely  defeated  in  the  battle  ol 
Delium.  At  the  same  time  a  Spartan  general, 
named  Brasidas,  marched  into  Thrace  and  per- 
suaded Amphipolis  and  other  coast-towns  to  revolt 
from  Athens.  Brasidas  was  far  more  than  an  ordi- 
nary Spartan  soldier.  He  had  none  of  the  usual 
Spartan  slowness  and  fear  of  change.  He  was  swift 
and  daring ;  and  not  only  this,  but  he  had  the  power 
of  making  men  trust  and  love  him.  Unlike  most  of 
the  Spartans  (p.  83),  he  was  an  eloquent  speaker; 
and  his  words  no  less  than  his  deeds  excited  the 
Thracian  towns  to  rise  against  Athens.  The  loss  of 
these  towns,  together  with  the  defeat  at  Delium, 
turned  the  tide  of  war  against  the  Athenians,  which 
had  hitherto  been  in  their  favour.  Kleon  was  sent  to 
recover  Amphipolis.  There  he  encountered  Brasidas, 
and  both  Brasidas  and  Kleon  were  killed  (b.c.  422). 

26.  Peace  of  Nikias. — Kleon  had  been  the 
leader  of  the  party  most  zealous  for  war,  and  his 
death  made  peace  possible.  Peace  was  made  in  b.c. 
421,  each  side  agreeing  to  give  up  their  prisoners  and 
the  places  they  had  taken  in  the  war.  The  Athenians, 
however,  were  allowed  by  the  Spartans  to  keep  certain 
places  which  had  surrendered  to  them  and  had  not 
been  taken  by  force.  This  conduct  of  Sparta  gave 
such  offence  to  the  Corinthians  and  other  States,  from 
whom  these  places  had  been  taken,  that  they  refused 
to  acknowledge  the  peace.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Athenians  did  not  get  back  Amphipolis.  The  peace 
is  named  after  Nikias,  the  Athenian  general,  who  had 
the  chief  share  in  making  it.  The  Spartans  had 
gained  nothing  by  the  war,  and  the  empire  of  Athens, 
except  for  the  loss  of  Amphipolis,  was  as  strong  as  ever 

27.  Alkibiades.  Mantinea. — The  head  of  the 
party  who  were  opposed  to  peace,  and  wished  to 
make  new  conquests,  was  now  Alkibiades.  Alki- 
Sjiades  was  a  young  noble,  very  clever  and  daring, 
but  bent  only  on  making  a  great  figure  in  the  world. 
Owing  to  his  cleverness  and  his  good  looks  he  hac: 


v.]  ALKIBIADES.  91 

been  so  spoilt  and  flattered  that  nothing  could  control 
him.  If  he  liked  to  do  a  thing,  he  did  it,  without  the 
least  regard  for  the  law.  The  impudence  with  which 
he  told  lies  and  deceived  people  in  order  to  gain 
his  ends  almost  passes  belief.  But  his  genius  gave 
him  great  power  over  the  Athenians,  and  the  event* 
now  coming  were  due  to  his  advice.  Some  of  the 
Peloponnesian  States,  in  their  discontent  wTith  Sparta^ 
were  making  a  new  League,  with  Argos  at  its  head  : 
Alkibiades  persuaded  the  Athenians  to  join  the  League 
with  Argos,  and  Athens  now  began  to  interfere  with 
the  affairs  of  the  Peloponnesian  States.  The  peace 
with  Sparta  was  soon  broken,  and  the  Athenians 
joined  the  Argives  in  invading  Arkadia.  At  Mantinea 
the  Spartan  king  Agis  met  them  and  defeated  them  in 
a  great  battle,  which  broke  up  the  Argive  League,  and 
restored  the  power  and  fame  of  Sparta  (b.c.  418). 

28.  Me! os. — The  island  of  Melos  was  now  almost 
the  only  v^Egaean  island  not  subject  to  Athens.  The 
Athenians,  without  any  pretence  of  right,  except  that 
Melos  was  necessary  to  their  empire,  summoned  it  to 
submit  to  them ;  and  when  the  Melians  refused, 
they  conquered  the  island,  put  all  the  grown-up  men 
to  death,  and  sold  the  women  and  children  as 
slaves  (b.c.  418). 

29.  Sicilian  Expedition. — The  Athenians  had 
for  some  time  been  interfering  in  the  affairs  of  the  Greek 
cities  in  Sicily  (p.  35),  and  in  B.C.  416,  the  city  of  Egesta 
applied  to  them  for  help  against  Syracuse.  Alkibiades 
excited  the  Athenians  with  the  hope  of  forming  a  new 
empire  in  Sicily,  and  Nikias  in  vain  argued  against 
such  wild  plans  of  conquest.  It  was  determined  to 
send  an  immense  armament,  and  Nikias,  Alkibiades 
and  Lamachus,  were  appointed  commanders.  Since 
the  death  of  Perikles,  Nikias  had  been  the  citizen 
most  esteemed  in  Athens.  He  was  a  noble,  and  very 
rich,  but  he  served  the  people  faithfully.  More  than 
any  man  he  kept  to  the  wise  plans  of  Perikles  for 
carrying  on  the  war  (pp.  85,  89),  and  resisted  rash  coun- 


92  MUTILATION  OF  THE  HERMJE.        [chak 

sels.  He  was  just  and  pious  ;  but  in  the  religion  of  that 
time  there  was  much  superstition,  and  the  very  piety  of 
Nikias  led,  as  we  shall  see,  to  a  fearful  result.  Nikias 
had  held  many  commands  :  he  was  a  very  brave  man, 
and  had  hitherto  been  successful  in  war.  But  though 
he  had  done  well  in  smaller  enterprises,  he  was  not 
fit  for  the  immense  command  which  was  now  given 
him.  He  was  too  cautious  and  hesitating,  and  let 
time  pass  idly  by  when  not  a  moment  ought  to  have 
been  lost.  The  third  general,  Lamachus,  was  a  good 
soldier,  but  he  was  so  poor  that  nobody  would  listen 
„o  his  advice. 

30.  Mutilation  of  the  Hermse. — In  all  the 
streets  of  Athens  there  were  placed  busts  of  the  god 
Hermes,  who  protected  the  Athenian  democracy.  When 
the  people  rose  one  morning  shortly  before  the  expedi- 
tion was  to  start,  they  found  that  all  these  busts  had 
been  disfigured  in  the  night.  Violent  alarm  seized  upon 
the  city,  for  the  act  was  not  only  a  daring  insult  to 
the  gods,  but  a  threat  against  the  democracy.  Among 
others,  Alkibiades  was  accused  of  being  concerned  in 
it.  He  begged  the  people  to  settle  his  innocence 
or  guilt  before  the  expedition  started  ;  but  his  enemies 
caused  the  inquiry  to  be  put  off,  that  they  might  make 
charges  against  him  in  his  absence, 

31.  The  Expedition. — In  June  B.C.  415,  a  fleet 
of  100  triremes  sailed  from  Athens  against  Syracuse. 
At  Kerkyra  it  was  joined  by  the  forces  of  the  allies, 
and  the  whole  armament  mustered  134  triremes  and 
500  carrying  ships,  having  on  board  over  5,000  heavy 
armed  men,  besides  slingers  and  light-armed.  Lama- 
chus wished  to  attack  Syracuse  instantly,  before  it 
could  prepare  for  defence  :  but  instead  of  this  the 
generals  went  about  among  the  Sicilian  towns  seeking 
for  allies.  While  they  were  thus  engaged,  Alkibiades 
was  summoned  home  to  answer  a  new  charge  of  sacri- 
lege. He  fled  to  Sparta,  and  became  the  bitterest 
enemy  of  Athens.  Nothing  was  done  during  the 
autumn,  and  Nikias  kept  his  forces  idle  at  (Sicilian) 


v.]  THE  SIEGE.  93 

Naxos  during  the  winter.  The  Syracusans  in  the 
meantime  fortified  their  town  and  sent  to  Greece  foi 
help.  Remembering  what  Brasidas  had  done  in 
Thrace,  they  begged  the  Spartans  above  all  things 
to  send  them  a  Spartan  general  to  take  command. 
Alkibiades,  who  was  now  at  Sparta,  out  of  hatred  to 
Athens  persuaded  the  Spartans  to  do  as  the  Syra- 
cusans asked. 

32.  The  Siege. — Syracuse  was  the  largest  and 
most  powerful  city  in  Sicily.  It  lay  on  the  coast,  with 
high  ground  behind  it.  Since  the  delay  of  Nikias  had 
enabled  the  Syracusans  to  make  their  fortifications, 
there  was  no  hope  of  taking  the  town  by  assault,  and 
the  only  chance  of  the  Athenians  was  to  starve  it  out 
by  cutting  off  provisions  by  land  and  sea.  They 
therefore,  in  the  spring  of  B.C.  414,  began  to  build  a 
double  wall  round  the  town  on  the  land  side  (p.  &6), 
and  made  such  progress  with  it  that  Syracuse  was 
almost  given  up  for  lost.  At  the  same  time  the 
Athenian  fleet  blockaded  Syracuse  by  sea.  But  soon 
after  this  Lamachus  was  killed,  and  Nikias  was  left- 
alone  in  command  ;  and  before  the  wall  was  quite 
finished  a  Spartan  general  named  Gylippus  arrived 
with  about  3,000  mixed  troops,  and  through  the  care 
lessness  of  Nikias  was  able  to  make  his  way  intc 
Syracuse.  From  this  moment  everything  changed. 
Gylippus  filled  everybody  with  new  hope.  He  defeated 
the  Athenians  on  the  high  ground  behind  the  town, 
and  built  a  cross-wall  in  such  a  direction  that  unless 
the  Athenians  could  take  it  they  could  never  finish 
their  own  wall  round  Syracuse.  The  siege  now  stopped. 
The  Athenian  army  had  to  keep  to  the  part  of  the 
wall  which  they  had  built;  their  ships  were  rotting 
from  want  of  repairs  3  the  slaves  who  rowed  the  ships, 
and  the  citizens  of  subject  States  who  served  in  the 
crews,  were  deserting ;  and  the  Syracusans,  who  had  at 
first  thought  themselves  hopelessly  inferior  to  the  Athe- 
nians by  sea,  were  now  manning  ships  in  the  harbour, 
and  practising  for  a  battle.     Nikias  wrote  to  Athens 


94  DEMOSTHENES.  [chap. 

for  reinforcements,  and  asked  to  be  allowed  to  give 
up  the  command  (Sept.  B.C.  414),  for  he  was  suffering 
from  a  painful  disease.  The  Athenians  foolishly  in- 
sisted on  his  keeping  it.  In  the  spring  of  B.C.  413 
Gylippus  attacked  the  Athenians  by  sea.  He  was 
defeated  in  the  first  battle  ;  but  while  the  fleets  were 
engaged  in  the  harbour,  the  land  army  of  Gylippus 
seized  the  naval  camp  and  stores  of  the  Athenians  on 
the  beach.  In  the  second  battle  the  Athenian  fleet 
was  completely  defeated,  and  the  Syracusans  now 
looked  forward  to  the  entire  destruction  of  the 
Athenians. 

33  Demosthenes.— But  hardly  had  the  Syracu- 
sans won  this  victory,  when  they  were  dismayed  to 
see  a  new  Athenian  fleet  enter  their  harbour.  The 
Athenians  had  made  an  immense  effort,  and  had 
sent  out  seventy-five  more  triremes,  with  a  new  army, 
under  command  of  Demosthenes,  the  most  resolute 
and  daring  of  all  their  soldiers.  Demosthenes  saw 
at  once  that  unless  the  cross -wall  of  Gylippus  were 
taken  they  could  never  surround  Syracuse.  Having 
failed  in  an  attack  upon  it  from  the  front,  he  led  his 
troops  a  long  way  round  by  night,  mounted  the. 
high  ground  without  being  perceived,  and  attacked 
Gylippus  in  the  darkness.  At  first  Demosthenes 
was  victorious,  but  the  darkness  threw  his  troops  into 
confusion.  They  slaughtered  one  another,  and  the 
battle  ended  in    ruinous  disaster. 

34.  Destruction  of  the  Athenians.— His  attacf 
on  the  wall  having  failed,  Demosthenes  knew  that 
.  Syracuse  could  not  now  be  taken,  and  urged  Nikiasto 
retreat  at  once,  before  further  evil  befel  them.  Nikias 
for  a  long  time  refused  ;  at  length  he  agreed,  and  the 
order  was  given  to  sail  the  next  day  (Aug.  27,  B.C. 
413).  But  that  night  there  was  an  eclipse  of  the 
moon,  and  Nikias,  who  deeply  reverenced  all  sup- 
posed signs  from  heaven,  was  told  by  the  soothsayers 
that  the  army  must  not  move  foi  a  month  (p.  51).  The 
Syracusans    had    now    discovered    Nikias'   intention 


v.]  RUIN  OF  THE  ATHENIANS.  95 

to  retreat,  and  determined  not  to  let  the  Athenians 
escape.  They  blockaded  the  great  harbour  in  which 
the  whole  Athenian  fleet  lay,  so  that  the  Athenians 
could  only  escape  by  forcing  their  way  through  the 
enemy's  ships.  When  every  possible  preparation  had 
been  made,  the  Athenian  fleet  advanced,  and  the 
battle  began.  The  entire  population  of  Syracuse 
crowded  to  the  water's  edge  watching  the  battle,  and 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  harbour  the  Athenian 
troops  which  had  not  gone  on  shipboard  were  drawn 
up, — the  whole  multitude  shouting  and  swaying  their 
bodies  in  exultation,  or  agony,  as  they  saw  their 
friends  conquering  or  conquered.  It  was  a  struggle 
for  life  or  death.  The  Athenians  fought  with  despair- 
ing bravery ;  but  in  vain.  They  were  beaten  and 
driven  back  upon  the  shore  of  the  harbour.  Their 
only  po',sible  chance  now  was  to  escape  by  land  to 
some  friendly  city.  Abandoning  their  wounded  and 
dead,  and  in  the  depth  of  misery  themselves,  the 
entire  host,  numbering,  it  is  said,  40,000  men,  struck 
into  the  interior  of  the  island.  Perishing  with  hunger 
and  thirst  they  were  pursued  and  attacked  by  the 
Syracusans,  and  at  the  end  of  six  days  all  who  had 
not  died  or  deserted  were  made  prisoners.  Nikias 
and  Demosthenes  took  poison,  in  order  to  escape 
being  displayed  to  the  Syracusan  populace.  All  the 
rest  of  the  prisoners  were  made  into  slaves.  Such 
was  the  fearful  end  of  this  great  armament,  the 
greatest  that  had  ever  yet  been  sent  out  by  a  Greek 
State. 

35.  Danger  of  Athens.  Dekeleia. — The  ruin 
of  the  Sicilian  expedition  was  one  of  the  greatest  cala 
mities  that  ever  befel  any  nation.  If  the  Spartans  had 
acted  with  energy  they  might  have  crushed  Athens  at 
once,  but  they  missed  their  opportunity,  and  the 
Athenians  kept  up  the  war  with  wonderful  spirit. 
They  were  indeed  hard  pressed.  The  Spartan  king 
Agis,  by  the  advice  of  Alkibiades  (p.  92),  had  seized 
I  strong  place,  named  Dekeleia,  in  the  heart  of  Attica, 
9 


96  REVOLT  OF  CHIOS,  [cha* 

and  kept  a  garrison  there  permanently,  which  ravaged 
the  country  in  every  direction,  so  that  no  crops  could 
be  grown.  The  cattle  were  destroyed,  the  slaves  ran 
away  to  the  Spartans,  and  the  roads  could  not  be 
used.  Athens  depended  for  food  on  supplies  brought 
in  ships,  chiefly  from  Eubcea  and  from  the  coasts  of 
the  Black  Sea. 

36.  Revolt  of  Chios — Alkibiades  also  per- 
suaded the  Spartans  to  build  a  fleet,  and  send  it 
over  to  Asia  to  assist  the  Ionians  in  revolting.  He 
himself  crossed  at  once  to  Chios  with  a  few  ships,  in 
order  to  begin  the  revolt.  The  government  of  Chios 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  nobles  \  but  they  had  hitherto 
served  Athens  so  well  that  the  Athenians  had  not 
altered  the  government  to  a  democracy  (p.  84). 
Now,  however,  they  revolted  (b.c.  413).  This  was 
a  heavy  blow  to  Athens,  for  Chios  was  the  most 
powerful  of  the  Ionian  States,  and  others  would  be 
sure  to  follow  its  example.  Miletus  and  Lesbos  re- 
volted in  b.c.  412.  The  nobles  of  Samos  prepared  to 
revolt,  but  the  people  were  in  favour  of  Athens,  and 
rose  against  the  nobles,  killing  two  hundred  of  them, 
and  banishing  four  hundred  more.  Athens  now  made 
Samos  its  free  and  equal  ally  instead  of  its  subject, 
and  Samos  became  the  head- quarters  of  the  Athenian 
fleet  and  army. 

37.  Alliance  between  Sparta  and  Tissa- 
phernes. — Tissaphernes,  the  Persian  satrap  of  the 
centre  of  Asia  Minor,  wished  to  see  the  empire  of 
Athens  overthrown,  because  it  kept  Ionia  free  from 
Persia.  He  therefore  made  alliance  with  the  Spartans, 
promising  to  pay  the  troops  which  they  had  sent  over 
to  Ionia;  and  the  Spartans  basely  agreed  to  give  up 
to  Persia  all  the  Greek  cities  in  Asia  Minor.  The 
Athenians,  however,  had  now  manned  a  fresh  navy. 
They  defeated  the  Peloponnesian  and  Persian  fleets 
together  at  Miletus,  and  were  only  kept  from  besieg- 
ing Miletus  by  the  arrival  of  a  fleet  from  Syracuse. 

38    Alkibiades   leaves  the  Spartans. — Alki 


v.]  THE  FOUR  HUNDRED.  97 

biades  bad  made  enemies  among  the  Spartans,  and 
when  he  had  been  some  time  in  Asia  tMinor 
an  order  came  over  from  Sparta  to  put  him  to 
death.  He  escaped  to  Tissaph ernes,  and  now  made 
up  his  mind  to  win  back  the  favour  of  Athens  by 
breaking  up  the  alliance  between  Tissaphernes  and 
the  Spartans.  He  contrived  to  make  a  quarrel  between 
them  about  the  rate  of  pay,  and  persuaded  Tissa- 
phernes that  it  would  be  the  best  thing  for  Persia  to 
let  the  Spartans  and  Athenians  wear  one  another  out, 
without  giving  help  to  either.  Tissaphernes  therefore 
kept  the  Spartans  idle  for  months,  always  pretending 
that  he  was  on  the  point  of  bringing  up  his  fleet  to 
help  them.  Alkibiades  now  sent  a  lying  message  to 
the  generals  of  the  Athenian  army  at  Samos  that 
he  could  get  Athens  the  help  of  Tissaphernes,  if  the 
Athenians  would  allow  him  to  return  from  his  exile : 
but  he  said  that  he  could  never  return  while  there  was 
a  democracy :  so  that  if  they  wished  for  the  help  of 
Persia,  they  must  change  tire  government  to  an 
oligarchy  (b.c.  412).  s 

39.  The  Four  Hundred. -Vln  the  army  at  Samos 
tnere  were  many  rich  men  willing  to  see  an  oligarchy 
established  at  Athens,  and  peace  made  with  Sparta 
(p.  78).  The  rich  had  to  contribute  very  heavily 
towards  the  expenses  of  the  warl  the  sums  spent  in 
paying  citizens  for  attending  the^  assembly  and  jury 
courts  (p.  79)  exhausted  the  Stajte  ;  and  the  demo- 
cracy had  brought  discredit  on  itself  by  its  folly  in 
deciding  upon  the  Sicilian  expedition  against  the 
advice  of  Nikias  and  other  moderate  men.  There- 
fore, though  the  great  mass  of  the  army  at  Samos 
was  democratical,  a  certain  number  of  powerful  men 
agreed  to  the  plan  of  Alkibiades  for  changing  the  go- 
vernment. One  of  the  conspirators,  named  Pisander, 
was  sent  to  Athens  to  instruct  the  clubs  of  nobles 
and  rich  men  (p.  86)  to  work  secretly  for  this 
object.  In  these  clubs  the  overthrow  of  the  demo- 
cracy v\as  planned,     Citizens  known  to  be  zealous  for 


q8  THE  FOUR  HUNDRED.  [chap. 

the  constitution  were  secretly  murdered.  Terror  fell 
over  the  city,  for  no  one  except  the  conspirators  knew 
who  did,  and  who  did  not,  belong  to  the  plot ;  and 
at  last,  partly  by  force,  the  assembly  was  brought  to 
abolish  the  popular  government  and  all  the  magis- 
tracies, and  to  give  the  State  wholly  into"  the  hands 
of  four  hundred  men  of  the  party  of  the  nobles. 
There  was  professedly  to  be  an  assembly  of  5,000 
citizens,  but  the  Four  Hundred  did  not  mean  to 
summon  it.  They  now  put  to  death  many  more  of 
their  enemies,  and  began  to  treat  for  peace  with 
Sparta  (b.c.  411). 

40.  The  Army  at  Samos.— When  the  army 
at  Samos  heard  of  what  had  happened  at  Athens, 
they  were  furious  against  the  conspirators,  and  took 
an  oath  to  preserve  the  democracy.  They  declared 
themselves  to  be  the  true  body  of  Athenian  citizens, 
since  those  at  home  had  abandoned  the  constitution  ; 
and  they  met  together  with  all  the  forms  of  the  popu- 
lar assembly,  and  elected  the  regular  magistrates  of 
the  State.  The  democratic  leaders  of  the  army  made 
friends  with  Alkibiades,  who  thereupon  broke  off  his 
connection  with  the  Four  Hundred,  and  was  made 
general  of  the  army.  Alkibiades  had  done  the  most 
deadly  injury  to  his  country.  It  was  through  him 
that  Gylippus  had  been  sent  to  Sparta,  that  Agis  had 
occupied  Dekeleia,  and  that  Chios  had  revolted.  But 
the  soldiers  were  so  convinced  that  he  could  get  them 
the  help  of  Tissaphernes,  and  make  up  for  all  the  evil 
he  had  done  to  Athens,  that  they  forgave  him  every- 
thing. 

41.  The  Four  Hundred  Overthrown. — The 
Four  Hundred  were  divided  among  themselves  ;  the 
more  moderate  were  for  summoning  the  5,000  citizens, 
and  allowing  some  kind  of  liberty  ;  the  more  des- 
perate were  determined  to  keep  their  power  at  any 
cost,  and  sent  to  the  Spartans  offering  to  admit  them 
into  Piraeus.  The  Spartans  missed  their  opportunity  ; 
and   the   people  could  bear  the  government  of  the 


v\]  BATTLES  IN  THE  HELLESPONT  99 

Four  Hundred  no  longer.  The  ancient  constitution 
was  restored,  except  that  a  man  was  required  to  have 
certain  property  to  vote  as  a  citizen,  and  that  the 
payment  for  attending  the  assembly  and  the  jury 
courts  was  abolished.  A  few  of  the  leaders  of  the 
Four  Hundred  were  put  to  death  after  a  regular 
trial ;  but  the  people  acted  with  great  calmness  and 
moderation,  and  there  was  no  such  violence  as  took 
place  in  Kerkyra  and  other  states  (b.c.  411). 

At  this  moment  Eubcea  revolted  and  joined  the 
Spartans.  This  was  a  desperate  blow  to  Athens. 
No  food  could  be  grown  in  Attica,  and  now  not  only 
was  it  deprived  of  the  food  thaf  came  from  Eubcea 
(p.  96),  but  the  Spartans,  by  occupying  Eubcea  and  its 
ports,  could  fall  upon  ships  bringing  food  to  Athens 
from  other  places. 

42.  Athenian  Victories  in  the  Hellespont. 
The  Spartans,  who  at  first  fought  only  by  land, 
had  now  grown  used  to  the  sea,  and  were  prepared 
to  fight  out  the  war  with  the  Athenian  fleet  off 
the  coast  of  Asia  Minor.  When  they  found  that 
Tissaphernes  did  not  really  mean  to  help  them,  they 
moved  their  fleet  from  Ionia  to  the  Hellespont,  to  act 
with  Pharnabazus,  the  satrap  of  the  northern  part  of 
Asia  Minor,  and  to  assist  the  towns  in  that  district, 
which  had  already  begun  to  revolt  from  Athens. 
Mindarus,  the  Spartan  admiral,  hoped  to  gain  com- 
mand of  the  Bosporus  and  Hellespont,  for  then 
Athens  would  be  cut  off  from  the  towns  on  the  Black 
Sea,  on  which  it  now  depended  for  corn.  The  Athe- 
nian fleet  at  Samos  followed  Mindarus  northwards, 
and  two  battles  were  fought  in  the  Hellespont,  both 
of  which  were  gained  by  the  Athenians.  In  February 
b.c.  410,  by  the  skill  of  Alkibiades,  the  Spartan  fleet 
which  was  besieging  Kyzikus  in  the  Propontis  was 
surrounded  by  the  Athenians.  Mindarus  ran  his  ships 
aground  and  fought  a  land  battle.  The  Spartans 
were  completely  defeated,  Mindarus  was  killed,  and 
their  entire  fleet  lost.    So  great  was   the  blow  that 


ioo  LYSANDER  TAKES  ATHENS.  [chap. 

they  sent  proposals  of  peace  to  Athens,  but  the 
Athenians  unwisely  rejected  them.  Alkibiades  con 
tinued  to  do  Athens  good  service  during  the  next  two 
years,  and  the  revolted  towns  about  the  Bosporus  were 
conquered. 

43.  Lysander  and  Cyrus.  ^Egospotami. — 
The  1  ing  of  Persia,  seeing  how  Athens  was  recover- 
ing her  power,  and  knowing  that,  if  Athens  came  out 
of  the  war  victoriously,  the  Persians  could  not  recover 
Ionia,  now  determined  really  to  help  the  Spartans, 
and  sent  his  younger  son,  Cyrus,  to  the  coast,  to  assist 
them  with  money.  The  new  Spartan  admiral,  Lysan- 
der, was  a  most  skilful  leader  and  manager.  He  made 
such  friendship  with  Cyrus,  that  Cyrus  not  only  gave 
the  Spartans  the  pay  which  he  had  promised,  but  in- 
creased it:  and  it  was  through  this  Persian  money  that 
Sparta  at  length  overcame  Athens.  The  war  con- 
tinued, however,  and  the  Athenians  gained  more 
victories,  till  B.C.  405,  when  Lysander  caught  the 
Athenian  fleet  quite  unprepared  at  ^Egospoiami  in 
the  Hellespont,  and  captured  the  whole  of  it. 

44.  Downfall  of  Athens. — Their  fleet  being 
gone,  the  Athenians  had  now  nothing  left  but  Athens 
itself.  The  towns  in  Asia  Minor  one  after  another 
surrendered  to  Lysander,  except  Samos ;  and  in 
November  B.C.  405  Lysander  blockaded  Piraeus  with 
his  fleet,  while  the  Spartan  army,  under  Agis,  sur- 
rounded Athens  by  land.  The  long  walls  were  useless 
now;  because  Lysander  was  master  of  the  sea,  and  no 
ships  could  approach  Piiseus  with  food.  After  four 
months  the  city  was  compelled  by  famine  to  surrender 
(March  B.C.  404).  The  terms  of  peace  were  that 
Athens  should  give  up  her  entire  empire,  and  that 
the  long  walls  and  fortifications  of  Piraeus  should  be 
destroyed.  This  was  the  end  of  the  grandeur  of 
Athens. 

45.  The  Thirty  Tyrants. — Lysander  now 
helped  the  most  violent  among  the  nobles  to  over- 
throw the   democracy,  and  set  up  a  government   of 


v.]  THE  THIRTY  TYRANTS.  ioi 

thirty  men.  The  chief  of  these  was  Kritias.  The 
crimes  of  the  Thirty  are  among  the  very  worst 
recorded  in  Greek  history.  They  put  hundreds  of 
the  citizens  to  death  without  trial,  and  acted  with 
such  violence,  wickedness,  and  cruelty,  that  they 
were  always  known  afterwards  as  the  "  Thirty 
Tyrants."  A  garrison  of  Spartans  was  placed  in 
Vthens  to  protect  them.  But  after  eight  months  the 
citizens  whom  they  had  banished  marched  upon 
Athens.  Regular  battles  were  fought,  and  at  last 
the  Spartans  ceased. to  protect  the  Thirty.  The 
government  of  the  people  was  restored  in  the  spring 
of  B.C.  403.  However  unwise  the  democracy  had 
been  (p.  97),  it  had  never  committed  such  crimes 
as  the  oligarchical  governments  of  the  Four  Hundred 
and  the  Thirty. 

46.  Unbelief.  Socrates. — The  desperate  strug 
gles  between  the  nobles  and  the  people  which  were 
caused  by  the  war  in  so  many  cities  (pp.  84,  89,  96), 
made  men  disregard  everything  except  the  interests 
of  the  party  to  which  they  belonged.  In  their  hatred 
against  the  opposite  faction  in  the  State,  men  lost  then- 
care  for  the  State  itself.  The  interest  of  the  party  was 
put  in  the  place  of  law,  custom,  and  piety.  This, 
together  with  other  causes,  tended  to  break  down  the 
belief  of  educated  Greeks  in  their  old  religion,  and 
their  old  distinctions  between  right  and  wrong.  The 
war  spread  violence  all  over  Greece.  Men  acted  as  if 
mere  force  gave  a  right  to  everything  (p.  91);  and 
'some  even  taught  that  this  was  so.  In  this  bad  time 
a  man  arose  at  Athens,  named  Socrates,  who  had  such 
thoughts  of  truth  and  goodness  as  no  Greek  had  ever 
had  before  him.  He  taught  that  it  was  better  to  suffer 
wrong  than  to  do  wrong ;  and  that  the  gods  wished 
men  to  honour  them,  not  by  beliefs  and  observances, 
but  by  doing  good.  His  way  of  teaching  was  by 
asking  questions,  until  he  made  people  see  how 
little  they  knew.  The  Athenians  misunderstood  him  : 
he  was  accused  of  destroying  men's  belief  in  the  gods, 


£02  RULE  OF  SPARTA.  [chap. 

and  was  put  to  death.  While  in  prison  he  had  the 
chance  of  escaping,  but  refused.  The  death  ot 
Socrates  for  the  sake  of  the  truth  was  a  new  thing  in 
the  history  of  Greece.  Many  men  had  died  bravely 
for  their  country,  but  Socrates  rather  died  like  a 
missionary  or  a  martyr.  Both  his  life  and  his  death 
made  a  deep  impression  upon  those  who  had  known 
him  •  and  from  this  time  there  were  men  in  Greece 
who  gave  up  their  lives  to  the  search  after  truth. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

SPARTA,     THEBES,     MACEDONIA. 

1.  Rule  of  Sparta. — Sparta  had  now  control 
over  all  the  places  that  had  been  subject  to  Athens. 
Lysander  went  through  the  cities,  establishing  in  each 
an  oligarchical  government  of  ten  citizens  favourable 
to  Sparta,  and  also  a  Spartan  governor,  called  the 
harmost  (upfweriic,  manager).  The  government  of 
the  Spartan  harmosts  was  much  more  oppressive 
than  that  of  the  Athenians  had  been,  and  Sparta  soon 
came  to  be  hated  by  all  the  Greek  States.  The  chief 
Spartans  gained  great  wealth,  and  the  character  of  the 
Spartan  State  changed  (p.  22).  There  were  now  at 
Sparta  a  few  very  rich  and  powerful  citizens,  and  the 
rest  grew  more  and  more  poor  and  discontented. 

2.  Retreat  of  the  Ten  Thousand  (B.C. 
401). — Artaxerxes,  the  elder  brother  of  that  Cyrus 
who  had  helped  Lysander  (p.  100),  had  succeeded 
his  father  as  king  of  Persia.  Cyrus  resolved  tol 
make  himself  king  in  his  place,  and  hired  an  army 
of  about  10,000  Greeks,  with  whom  he  marched 
into  the  interior  of  the  empire.  At  Kynaxa,  near 
Babylon,  a  battle  was  fought,  and  Cyrus  was  killed. 
The  Greeks  had  now  to  make  their  way  back 
to  the  coast  from  the  very  centre  of  the  empire, 
through  the  enemy's  country.  Their  return  is  called 
the  "Retreat  of  the  10,000,"  and  we  have  a  history 
of  it.  written  by  Xenophon  their  leader.    Their  escape 


VI.]  PEACE  OF  ANTALKIDAS.  103 

showed  how  weak  the  Persian  empire  really  was  ;  for, 
had  it  possessed  an  army  good  for  anything,  the  little 
Greek  force  must  have  been  destroyed  in  the  course 
of  its  long  retreat. 

3.  Sparta  at  War  with  Persia. — The  Spartans 
were  ashamed  of  having  given  up  the  Greeks  in  Asia 
to  Persia,  and  now  made  war  upon  the  Persian 
latraps  in  Asia  Minor  (b.c.  398).  Their  king  Agesi- 
iaus  gained  some  successes,  and  prepared  to  attack 
Persia  with  great  force.  Pharnabazus  (p.  99)  raised  a 
Phoenician  fleet,  and  gave  the  command  of  it  to 
Konon,  an  Athenian  admiral.  Konon  met  the 
Spartan  fleet  off  Knidus,  near  Rhodes,  and  com- 
pletely defeated  it  (b.c.  394).  The  result  of  this  was 
that  Sparta  lost  control  over  the  cities  in  Asia  Minor, 
which  depended  on  her  having  command  of  the  sea. 
The  Spartan  harmosts  were  expelled ;  and  Konon, 
crossing  over  to  Athens,  rebuilt  the  long  walls  and 
the  fortification  of  Piraeus. 

4.  Sparta  at  War  with  Greek  States. — 
The  Persians  also  stirred  up  the  Greek  States  to  make 
war  on  Sparta.  Thebes,  which  had  been  the  bitterest 
enemy  of  Athens,  now  united  with  her  against  Sparta, 
and  they  were  joined  by  Corinth  and  Argos.  The 
Spartans  had  to  call  king  Agesilaus  and  his  army 
back  from  Asia,  in  order  to  defend  them  at  home. 
War  was  carried  on  for  some  time  in  the  territory  of 
Corinth  between  Spaita  and  the  States  allied  against 
her ;  and  at  the  same  time  the  Athenians  sent  a  fleet 
to  the  Hellespont,  and  were  restoring  their  power 
by  sea. 

5.  Peace  of  Antalkidas  (B.C.  387).— The  Spar- 
tans now  found  it  necessary  to  make  friends  with  Persia, 
and  a  disgraceful  peace  was  made,  called  the  peace  of 
Antalkidas,  by  which  the  cities  in  Asia  were  given 
up  to  Persia,  and  the  Persian  king  was  allowed  to 
command  the  Greeks  to  make  peace  with  one  another 
and  to  tell  them  what  the  terms  of  peace  between 
them  were  to  be,  as  if  he  were  their  master,  and  they 


c  04  NE  W  A  THEN  IAN  CON  FED  ERA  CY.      [chap. 

were  bis  subjects.  This  was  the  result  of  the  struggles 
of  Athens  and  Sparta  with  one  another,  and  of  the 
help  which  both  had  received  from  Persia.  All 
die  Greek  States  agreed  to  this  peace.  The  League 
of  the  Boeotian  cities  under  Thebes  was  broken  up, 
and  in  each  of  them  an  oligarchical  government 
favourable  to  Sparta  was  set  up.  In  some  of  them 
the  Spartans  placed  garrisons  of  their  own  troops. 

6.  Sparta  and  Thebes. — There  was  a  party  in 
Thebes  in  favour  of  Sparta.  When  a  Spartan  army 
wTas  passing  through  Bceotia,  this  party  treacherously 
gave  the  citadel  of  Thebes,  called  Kadmeia,  into  their 
hands  (b.c,  382),  and  a  garrison  of  1,500  Lacedaemo- 
nians was  placed  there.  For  three  years  the  Spartans 
were  masters  of  Thebes,  but  in  b.c.  379  a  plot 
was  made  against  them  by  some  Thebans,  headed  by 
a  noble  named  Pelopidas.  The  commanders  of  the 
Spartan  garrison  were  killed,  and  the  Kadmeia  was 
recovered  by  the  Thebans.  This  greatly  diminished 
the  power  of  Sparta  and  encouraged  her  enemies. 

7.  New  Athenian  Confederacy. — The  Athe- 
nians succeeded  in  establishing  a  league  of  seventy- 
four  cities  of  the  ^Egaean  Sea,  resembling  what  the 
confederacy  of  Delos  had  been  at  first  (p.  75).  The 
cities  were  to  keep  their  own  governments,  and  a  new 
name  was  given  to  the  contribution  which  they  were 
to  pay,  in  order  that  the  League  might  not  seem  like 
the  empire  of  Athens  restored.  Thebes  joined  the 
League,  and  war  was  carried  on  against  Sparta  by  land 
and  sea.  The  object  of  the  Thebans  was  to  drive 
the  Spartans  out  of  those  cities  in  Bceotia  in  which 
they  still  had  garrisons,  and  to  restore  the  Boeotian 
League  with  Thebes  at  its  head.  By  B.C.  374  this 
object  was  accomplished*;  the  governments  favourable 
to  Sparta  were  overthrown,  the  Spartan  garrisons 
expelled,  and  the  Boeotian  League  restored.  Athens 
and  Thebes  now  became  jealous  of  each  other,  and 
in  B.C.  371  Athens  made  peace  with  Sparta,  leaving 
Thebes  to  carry  on  the  war  by  herself. 


vi.]  EPAMINONDAS.  105 

8.  Epaminondas.  Leuktra.  —  The  Spartans 
immediately  invaded  Bceotia,  but  the  Theban  infantry 
had  become  the  best  in  Greece,  and  their  commander, 
Epaminondas,  was  the  greatest  general  of  his  time. 
Epaminondas  met  the  Spartans  at  Leuktra,  and  so 
completely  defeated  them  that  all  over  Greece  it  was 
felt  that  the  power  of  Sparta  was  at  an  end.  But 
Epaminondas  was  not  content  with  destroying  the 
authority  of  Sparta  outside  Peloponnesus  :  in  order  to 
break  down  her  power  in  Peloponnesus  itself,  and  to 
surround  her  with  enemies,  he  determined  to  unite 
Arkadia,  which  had  hitherto  been  a  number  of  dis- 
connected cities,  in  one  great  League,  and  to  make 
Messenia,  which  had  been  for  300  years  subject  to 
Sparta,  an  indt pendent  State.  As  the  Arkaclian 
cities  were  too  jealous  of  one  another  to  allow  any 
one  of  them  to  be  head  of  the  league,  Epaminondas 
founded  a  new  city  called  Megalopolis  {the  great 
city,  fjteyaXi),  ir6\tc\  at  which  deputies  from  all  the 
other  Arkadian  cities  were  to  meet;  and  a  city  named 
Messene  wa;  built  to  be  the  centre  of  the  new 
Messenian  State  (b.c.  369).  Thus  Epaminondas 
completely  changed  the  condition  of  Greece.  He 
brought  down  Sparta,  which  for  hundreds  of  years 
had  been  the  leader  of  a  great  part  of  Greece,  to  the 
level  of  an  ordinary  State,  and  made  Thebes  for  the 
moment  supreme.  If  we  look  at  the  actual  changes 
which  he  produced,  Epaminondas  must  be  counted 
the  greatest  of  all  Greek  statesmen,  Themistokles 
alone  excepted.  But  the  work  of  Themistokles  en- 
dured ;  that  of  Epaminondas  passed  away. 

9.  Mantinea.  Death  of  Epaminondas. — 
Quarrels  soon  broke  out  in  the  new  Arkadian  League. 
A  part  of  it,  headed  by  Mantinea,  was  in  favour  of 
Sparta,  the  rest  in  favour  of  Thebes.  In  B.C.  362  the 
Spartans  sent  an  army  into  Arkadia  ;  Epaminondas 
met  them,  and  a  battle  was  fought  near  Mantinea.  The 
Thebans  gained  the  victory,  but  Epaminondas  was 
killed.     It  was  Epaminondas  who  had  raised  Thebes 


106  MACEDON,  [chap. 

to  its  great  power :  there  was  no  one  like  him  left  in 
Thebes,  and  after  his  death  its  authority  quickly  passed 
away. 

10.  Macedon. — The  Greek  States  had  exhausted 
their  power  in  their  wars  with  one  another,  and  they 
were  now  about  to  fall  under  the  dominion  of  Mace 
don.  which  had  hitherto  had  no  part  in  Greek  history. 
The  Macedonians  were  not  acknowledged  as  Greeks. 
They  were  probably  of  mixed  Greek  and  Illyrian  race  ; 
but  this  was  not  the  reason  why  they  were  not  ranked 
among  the  Greeks,  for  many  of  the  colonics,  which 
everyone  called  Greek,  were  of  equally  mixed  race. 
The  reason  was  that  the  Macedonians  did  not  live 
like  the  Greeks.  They  lived  mostly  in  the  country, 
not  in  cities  ;  and  while  the  great  mark  of  a  Greek  was, 
that  he  belonged  to  a  little  State  in  which  the  citizens 
met  together  and  managed  the  affairs  of  their  State 
themselves,  the  Macedonians,  on  the  contrary,  formed 
one  country  subject  to  a  king.  They  had  no  books 
and  no  art,  but  passed  their  time  in  farming  and 
hunting,  and  a  rough  country  life  ;  so  that  not  only  was 
the  government  of  the  Greeks  and  the  Macedonians 
quite  different,  but  to  an  educated  Greek  citizen  the 
ordinary  Macedonian  would  seem  too  uncouth  to 
be  a  Greek.  The  kings  of  Macedon,  however,  were 
admitted  to  be  Greeks,  and  were  allowed  to  take 
part  in  the  Olympian  games  (p.  24).  They  had  long 
been  trying  to  make  themselves  and  their  court  as 
much  like  the  Greeks  as  they  could.  Archelaus, 
who  was  king  about  B.C.  400,  had  invited  Greek 
poets  and  artists  to  Macedonia,  and  had  also  built 
cities  and  made  roads,  in  oider  that  his  people  might 
become  more  peaceable  and  prosperous.  Thus, 
when  the  Greek  States  were  worn  out  by  their  wars, 
Macedonia  was  just  beginning  to  be  a  powerful  coun- 
try. The  people  were  hardy,  brave,  and  obedient ; 
and  it  happened  that,  when  the  death  of  Epaminondas 
left  Thebes  without  a  leader,  Macedonia  was  governed 
by  a  king,  Philip,  who  was  superior  to  any  Greek  oi 


vi.]  PHILIP.  107 

his  day.  Philip  had  been  three  years  a  hostage  at 
Thebes  in  his  youth,  and  had  learnt  from  Eparninon- 
das  both  how  to  make  the  best  possible  army,  and  how 
most  to  strengthen  his  own  country  and  weaken  his 
enemies.  He  established  a  regular  army,  such  as  no 
Greek  State  possessed  (p.  15),  and  set  himself  to  ex 
tend  his  dominions,  and  become  the  head  and  leadei 
of  Greece. 

11.  Olynthus.  —  Between  the  eastern  part  of 
Philip's  dominions  and  the  sea  lay  the  district  called 
Chalkidike,  in  which  were  a  number  of  Greek  cities. 
One  of  these,  named  Olynthus,  had  become  a  very 
powerful  State,  and  had  placed  itself  at  the  head 
of  a  League  of  the  neighbouring  cities,  called  the 
Olynthian  Confederacy.  Further  east  was  the  import- 
ant city  of  Amphipolis,  which  Athens  had  lost  in  the 
Peloponnesian  war  (p.  90),  and  had  never  been  able 
to  recover.  Other  places  on  this  coast  still  belonged 
to  Athens,  so  that  Athens  was  concerned  from  the  first 
in  the  action  of  Philip.  Philip  made  friends  with 
the  Athenians  on  the  pretence  that  he  would  gain 
Amphipolis  for  them  :  but  when  he  had  conquered  it, 
he  kept  it  himself;  and  then,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
Athenians  and  Olynthians  joining  together  agamst 
him,  he  gave  up  another  city  to  Olynthus,  so  that  the 
Olynthians  became  his  allies  (B.C.  357).  He  now 
crossed  the  river  Strymon  and  conquered  the  western 
part  of  Thrace,  in  which  there  were  very  rich  gold 
mines,  and  founded  there  the  city  of  Philippi  (Acts 
xvi.  12). 

12.  Sacred  War. — Philip  soon  found  an  oppor 
tunity  of  interfering  in  the  affairs  of  Greece  proper 
through  a  war  connected  with  the  temple  of  Delphi. 
Thebes,  after  the  battle  of  Leuktra,  had  gained  control 
over  Phokis,  but  the  Phokians  were  a  spirited  race,  and 
threw  off  her  dominion.  The  Thebans  now  brought 
the  Council  of  Amphiktyons  (p.  18)  to  take  part 
against  the  Phokians,  and  to  condemn  them  to  a 
heavy    fine   for  having  cultivated  the   plain  of  Knsa 

10 


fo8  DEMOSTHENES,  [chai. 

(p.  28).  On  this  the  Phokians  seized  the  temple  of 
Delphi  itself  (b.c.  355);  and  by  means  of  its  treasures 
they  were  able  to  raise  a  large  army,  with  which  they 
cairied  on  war  against  the  Thebans  and  Lokrians. 
Athens  and  Sparta  joined  the  Phokians,  who  were  also 
suppoited  by  some  of  the  tyrants  reigning  in  Thessaly. 
The  Thessalian  nobles,  on  the  other  hand,  applied  to 
Philip  for  help.  A  great  battle  was  fought  in  Thessaly 
between  Philip  and  the  Phokians ;  Philip  gained 
the  victory,  and  made  himself  master  of  all  Thessaly 
(b.c.  352).  He  intended  to  march  into  Phokis,  but 
when  he  reached  Thermopylae  he  found  a  strong 
Athenian  force  there,  and  turned  back. 

13.  Demosthenes.  —  The  Athenians  had  again 
placed  themselves  at  the  head  of  an  yEgaean  League 
(p.  104),  and,  if  they  had  acted  with  spirit  and  wisdom, 
they  might  have  checked  Philip.  But  they  had  lost 
their  old  energy,  and  now  cared  more  for  shows  and 
amusements  than  for  anything  else.  The  rich  grudged 
giving  anything  to  the  State,  and  tried  to  escape  from 
the  taxes ;  and  the  Athenians  generally,  whose  fore- 
fathers had  been  ready  to  go  anywhere  and  do  any- 
thing for  the  good  of  Athens  (p.  80),  had  now  such 
a  cowardly  dislike  to  military  service  that  it  was 
necessary  to  employ  hirecL_soldiers,  who  were  not 
Athenians  at  all.  In  b.c.  358  a  war  broke  out  between 
Athens  and  its  allies.  Athens  was  unsuccessful,  and 
the  larger  cities  again  became  independent,  while  only 
the  smaller  ones  remained  in  the  League.  But  there 
was  one  man  in  Athens  worthy  of  its  best  days, — 
Demosthenes,  the  orator.  Demosthenes  saw  that 
Philip  meant  to  make  himself  master  of  Greece ;  and, 
while  many  of  the  Athenians  were  for  keeping  on 
friendly  terms  with  Macedon,  Demosthenes  was  con- 
vinced that  unless  Philip  were  checked  the  liberty  of 
Athens  would  be  lost  for  ever.  He  strove  to  awaken 
ihe  Athenians  to  their  danger,  and  to  stir  up  in  them 
the  spirit  of  their  forefathers ;  to  make  them  act  at 
once  and  with  resolution,   instead  of  letting   things 


tfr.j  OLYNTHUS.  109 

take  their  course.  The  power  of  Demosthenes  was 
his  eloquence :  he  was  the  finest  speaker  that  there 
has  ever  been.  It  was  on  the  conquest  of  Thes- 
saly  by  Philip  that  Demosthenes  made  his  first  great 
speech  against  Philip,  called  the  First  Philippic 
(b.c.  352). 

14.  Philip  conquers  Olynthus.  — ThessaV 
being  conqueror1,  the  Olynthians  saw  that  Philip 
would  attack  them  next,  and  sent  to  Athens  pro 
posing  an  alliance.  Demosthenes  urged  the  Athe 
nians  to  join  Olynthus  :  an  alliance  was  made,  and 
the  war  began.  But  the  Athenians  gave  so  little 
help  that  Philip  took  the  towns  of  the  Olynthian 
League  one  after -another,  and  last  of  all  Olynthus 
itself  fell  (b.c.  348).  _  Philip  is  said  to  have  completely 
destroyed  thirty  cities,  and  to  have  sold  all  the 
Olynthians  who  fell  into  his  hands  as  slaves.  The 
whole  of  Chalkidike  was  thus  added  to  Philip's 
dominions. 

15.  Philip  ends  the  Sacred  War.— The  Sa- 
cred War  was  still  going  on.  Philip  contrived  to  make 
a  treaty  of  peace  with  all  the  Greek  States  except  the 
Phokians;  and  when  he  had  thus  cut  the  Phokians 
off  from  all  help,  he  marched  into  Phokis  and  con- 
quered the  entire  country,  inflicting  such  misery  and 
ruin  as  the  Greeks  had  never  seen.  He  occupied 
Delphi,  gave  the  temple  back  to  its  managers,  and 
summoned  the  Amphiktyonic  Council.  The  Council 
decreed  that  every  Phokian  town  should  be  de- 
stroyed, and  the  Phokians  should  live  in  villages  only. 
The  votes  which  the  Phokians  had  had  in  the  Council 
were  transferred  to  Philip,  and  he  was  given  the  right 
of  presiding  at  the  Pythian  games  which  were  held  at 
Delphi.  By  this  means  Philip  made  himself  recognised 
by  the  Amphiktyonic  Council  as  the  champion  of  the 
god  Apollo  (comp.  p.  25),  and  gained  the  right  of  in- 
terfering in  Greek  affairs  wheneve  he  could  make  out 
that  any  wrong  had  been  done  to  the  god  and  his 
temple  (b.c.  346). 


no  BYZANTIUM.  [chap. 

16.  Peloponnesus. — In  most  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  States  there  were  parties  at  enmity  with  one 
another.  Philip  skilfully  turned  this  to  his  own  account, 
and  gained  over  one  of  the  parties  wherever  he  could. 
He  made  friends  especially  with  the  States  which 
Epaminondas  had  founded  (p.  105),  for  these  were  afraid 
of  Sparta  and  anxious  for  foreign  protection.  To 
counteract  the  schemes  of  Philip,  Demosthenes  him- 
self went  at  the  head  of  an  embassy  to  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  States  which  had  joined  Philip,  and  tried  to 
make  them  understand  that  they  had  joined  the 
enemy  of  all  Greece.  Nothing  resulted  from  this  jour- 
ney ;  but  the  warning  of  Demosthenes  had  now  been 
clearly  set  before  the  Greeks.  "  Philip,"  he  said,  "  is 
the  enemy  of  all  the  Greeks  alike.  He  is  a  king  ; 
and  if  victorious,  he  will  make  the  Greeks  his  sub- 
jects. Let  the  Greeks  cease  their  quarrels  with  one 
another,  and  unite  to  preserve  the  liberty  which 
is  the  birthright  of  the  Greeks  against  the  despot 
who  seeks  to  enslave  them  all."  Thus  Demosthenes 
struggled  not  for  Athens  alone,  but  for  the  whole 
Greek  race. 

17.  Athens  and  Byzantium. — At  first  the  Athe- 
nians had  paid  little  regard  to  Demosthenes  ;  but  as 
time  went  on,  and  all  that  he  had  said  about  Philip's 
ambition  was  seen  to  be  true,  a  strong  party  gathered 
round  him,  and  Athens  at  last  began  to  act  with  vigour. 
After  finishing  the  Sacred  War,  Philip  went  on  con- 
quering eastwards  in  Thrace.  He  was  as  yet  at  peace 
with  Athens,  but  an  Athenian  commander  on  the 
Thracian  coast  came  into  conflict  with  the  Macedonian 
troops.  Philip  wrote  a  letter  to  Athens  complaining 
of  this,  and  proposing  a  closer  friendship.  Demos- 
thenes stirred  up  the  Athenians  to  reject  Philip's  offer, 
and  to  ally  themselves  with  Byzantium,  which  Philip 
was  now  attacking.  Help  was  sent  from  Athens  to 
Byzantium  ;  it  was  effectual,  and  Philip  had  to  give  up 
the  siege  (b.c.  341).  This  success  increased  the  power 
of    Demosthenes    at    Athens,    and    enabled   him   to 


ri.]  CHMRONEA.  in 

carry  laws  diminishing  the  useless  expenditure  of 
the  pubic  money  on  festivals  (p.  108),  and  creating 
a  fund  for  carrying  on  the  war.  He  also  took 
measures  for  making  the  rich  pay  their  fair  share 
towards  the  fleet,  on  the  strength  of  which,  more 
than  anything  else,  the  success  of  Athens  against 
Philip  depended. 

1 8.  Chaeronea. —  But  Philip  had  friends  and  hire- 
lings in  abundance  in  Athens  and  in  every  other  Greek 
State.  The  chief  of  these  in  Athens  was  ^schines, 
who,  as  an  orator,  was  superior  to  everyone  except 
Demosthenes,  but,  as  a  citizen,  ranks  among  the 
worst  men  that  Athens  ever  produced.  ^Eschines  was 
the  deputy  of  Athens  at  the  Amphiktyonic  Council ; 
and  there,  in  b.c.  338,  he  caused  war  to  be  declared 
by  the  Council  against  the  neighbouring  town  of 
Amphissa  on  some  trifling  matter,  in  order  that  Philip 
might  be  summoned  to  take  command  (p.  109).  Philip 
moved  southward  with  a  large  army.  Suddenly  the 
news  reached  Athens  that,  instead  of  marching  on 
Amphissa,  Philip  had  seized  Elateia  in  the  east  of 
Phokis,  a  place  that  commands  the  entrance  to  Boeotia 
and  Attica.  Amphissa  had  been  a  mere  pretence; 
and  the  seizure  of  Elateia  meant  that  Philip  might  at 
any  moment  be  at  the  gates  of  Athens.  The  Assembly 
was  summoned  ;  and  when  every  one  else  was  silent 
through  fear  and  dismay,  Demosthenes  called  upon 
the  Athenians  to  ally  themselves  with  Thebes,  and 
meet  Philip  boldly.  They  did  so  ;  and  on  August 
7th,  B.C.  338,  the  Athenian  and  Theban  armies 
encountered  Philip  at  Chaeronea  in  Boeotia.  They 
were  utterly  overthrown,  and  Philip  was  master  of 
Greece. 

19.  Death  of  Philip. — Philip  now  summoned  a 
congress  of  all  the  Greek  States  at  Corinth.  War  was 
declared  against  Persia,  and  Philip  was  appointed 
commander  of  the  entire  force  of  Greece.  He  re- 
turned to  Macedonia  to  prepare  for  the  invasion  of 
Asia.    But  in  the  very  height  of  his  glory,  as  he  was 


112  ALEXANDER,  [chap. 

celebrating  the  marriage  festival  of  his  daughter  with 
the  king  of  Epirus,  he  was  murdered  by  a  Mace- 
donian noble,  and  his  crown  passed  to  his  son  Alex- 
ander (b.c.  336). 


CHAPTER  VII. 

EMPIRE  OF  ALEXANDER. 

i.  Alexander  Master  of  Greece.— Alexander, 
on  coming  to  the  throne,  found  everything  ready  for 
the  invasion  of  Persia.  As  the  death  of  Philip  caused 
a  movement  in  favour  of  liberty  in  some  of  the  Greek 
States,  Alexander  instantly  marched  into  Peloponnesus 
with  a  large  army,  in  order  to  show  the  Greeks  how 
strong  he  was.  A  congress  was  held  as  before  at 
Corinth,  and  Alexander,  though  only  twenty  years  old, 
was  recognized  as  the  head  and  the  general  of  Greece. 
He  then  returned  to  Macedonia,  and  in  the  spring  of 
B.C.  335  made  an  expedition  against  the  barbarous 
nations  north  of  Macedonia.  He  first  fought  his  way 
through  Thrace  to  the  Danube,  which  he  crossed, 
defeating  the  Getse  who  lived  beyond  it,  and  then 
turned  south-west,  and  defeated  the  Illyrians  on  the 
west  of  Macedonia.  While  he  was  absent,  a  false 
report  of  his  death  reached  Greece,  and  the  Thebans 
revolted  and  besieged  the  Macedonian  garrison  in  the 
Kadmeia.  Alexander  marched  from  Illyria  with  won- 
derful quickness,  and  captured  Thebes.  The  city  was 
razed  to  the  ground,  and  the  entire  population  sold 
as  slaves.  This  complete  destruction  of  the  State 
which  had  lately  been  at  the  head  of  Greece  struck 
terror  into  the  other  cities,  and  put  an  end  to  all 
thoughts  of  resistance. 

2.  The  Macedonian  Army.  Phalanx. — The 
army  which  Philip  had  prepared,  and  with  which  Alex- 
ander overthrew  the  Persian  empire,  was  so  armed 
and  arranged  that,  though  it  was  not  very  nume- 
rous, it  was  the  strongest  force  there  had  yet  been  in 
the  world.      The  great  feature  of  the    Macedonian 


vii."]  THE  PHALANX.  113 

army  was  the  phalanx.  This  was  a  body  of  foot  soldiers 
armed  with  spears  twenty-one  feet  long,  and  drawn  up 
in  sixteen  ranks,  each  rank  standing  three  feet  behind 
the  one  in  front  of  it,  and  holding  their  spears  fifteen 
feet  from  the  point  and  six  feet  from  the  heavy  end, 
so  that  the  spears  of  all  the  first  five  ranks  would 
project  in  front  of  the  men  in  the  first  rank,  to  the 
distance  of  three,  six,  nine,  twelve,  and  fifteen  feet  re- 
spectively. The  ordinary  Greek  spear  projected  only 
six  feet ;  so  that  when  the  Thebans  charged  the  Mace- 
donian phalanx  at  Chaeronea,  they  had  to  break  through 
three  rows  of  spear-points  before  their  own  could  strike 
the  Macedonians.  The  fault  of  the  phalanx  was  that 
it  could  not  turn  round  quickly,  and  that  it  required 
even  ground  to  keep  its  order;  and  thus,  though  the 
phalanx  was  a  stronger  body  of  heavy  armed  troops 
than  any  that  there  had  hitherto  been  in  Greece,  the 
Roman  method  of  first  throwing  a  short  spear  and 
then  fighting  with  swords  proved  to  be  superior  even 
to  the  phalanx,  for  in  this  there  was  nothing  to  prevent 
the  soldiers  being  rapidly  moved  about  in  every  direc- 
tion, and  each  man  could  fight  for  himself  and  use 
his  sword  just  as  well  on  rough  ground  as  smooth. 
There  is,  however,  no  instance  of  the  phalanx  being 
beaten  on  good  ground  by  troops  with  a  shorter 
weapon  attacking  it  in  front.  The  Romans,  when 
they  met  the  phalanx,  gained  the  victory  by  attacking 
it  on  the  sides,  and  on  hilly  ground,  where  its  spears 
could  not  be  kept  in  their  proper  order.  Alex- 
ander never  used  the  phalanx  by  itself,  but  began 
his  battles  with  other  troops,  and  then  brought  up 
the  phalanx  to  make  the  decisive  charge  and  end  the 
battle. 

3.  Guard  and  Cavalry. — The  soldiers  in  the 
phalanx  were  all  native  Macedonians  :  native  Mace- 
donians also  served  in  \\\z  guard—  a  body  of  infantry 
armed  with  the  ordinary  Greek  spear  and  shield — 
and  in  two  divisions  of  cavalry,  one  division  wearing 
heavy  armour   and   carrying  a  short  thick  spear  for 


I T4  MILITAR  Y  MONARCHY.  [char 

fighting  in  regular  battles,  the  other  without  much 
armour,  and  carrying  a  long  light  lance  for  scouring 
the  country  and  pursuing  the  enemy.  The  king  was 
attended  by  a  band  of  young  Macedonian  nobles, 
called  the  pages.  From  this  the  young  nobles  were 
promoted  into  a  picked  troop  called  the  body- 
guard, or,  as  we  should  say,  the  staff  of  the  king, 
out  of  which  the  king  chose  his  generals  and  greatest 
officers. 

4.  Other  troops. — Besides  these  divisions  of  the 
army,  composed  of  native  Macedonians,  there  were 
regiments  of  Greeks,  both  infantry  and  cavalry,  and 
also  regiments  drawn  from  the  barbarian  countries 
about  Macedonia,  armed  with  bows,  javelins,  or  other 
light  arms.  Above  all  there  was  a  regular  division  of 
the  army  to  work  machines  for  hurling  stones,  both  in 
sieges  and  in  battles.  These  machines  did,  in  an 
inferior  manner,  the  work  that  cannon  do  now.  In 
Greek  warfare  they  had  hitherto  been  employed  only 
to  batter  walls  in  sieges.  Alexander  first  used  them 
with  effect  in  battles,  and  later  on  in  history  there  i? 
an  instance  of  a  battle  being  decided  by  this  kind  of 
artillery. 

5.  Military  Monarchy. — Thus  the  Macedonian 
army,  though  not  numbering  above  40,000  men,  com- 
prised troops  and  appliances  for  every  kind  of  service. 
In  its  spirit  it  was  as  unlike  the  army  of  a  Greek 
State  as  possible.  In  a  Greek  army  the  soldiers  were 
the  citizens  themselves  (pp.  15,  41).  who,  as  soon  as  the 
war  was  over,  returned  to  their  ordinary  life ;  and  the 
generals  were  citizens  too,  and  were  elected  by  the 
people.  But  in  the  Macedonian  army  the  king  was 
everything.  The  soldiers  had  never  known  what  it 
was  to  act  as  citizens ;  they  knew  little  about  laws  or 
liberty,  but  were  devoted  to  their  king,  who  led  them 
and  fought  in  the  midst  of  them.  The  generals  had 
begun  by  being  the  king's  pages  ;  then  they  had  ac- 
companied him  in  his  body-guard,  and  had  been 
promoted  because  they  had  gained  his  friendship  or 


raj  ALEXANDER.  \  1 5 

good  opinion.  Liberty  is  out  of  the  question  in  a 
State  where  the  army  is  thus  the  instrument  of  a  single 
man,  like  Alexander,  Caesar,  or  Napoleon  :  but  the 
army  itself,  supposing  the  monarch  to  be  a  good 
general,  becomes  exceedingly  effective,  both  because 
the  love  of  soldiers  for  their  general  is  one  of  the 
strongest  feelings  that  men  can  have,  and  makes  them 
do  wonders  of  bravery  and  endurance,  and  also  because 
an  army  is  always  far  better  directed  when  a  single 
good  commander  is  supreme  than  when  a  number  of 
generals  succeed  one  another  in  the  command,  or  the 
government  of  the  State  has  the  right  to  interfere  with 
the  action  of  the  general.  It  happened  that  Alexander, 
who  had  now  absolute  command  of  the  army  which 
Philip  had  brought  to  such  perfection,  was  a  man  of 
extraordinary  genius  for  war.  From  all  these  causes 
the  Macedonian  army,  with  Alexander  at  its  head, 
was  such  a  force  as  there  had  never  yet  been  in 
history,  and  could  probably  without  much  difficulty 
have  conquered  the  entire  world. 

6.  Character  of  Alexander.— Alexander  deserves 
his  name  of  the  Great  for  his  wonderful  qualities  as  a 
general  and  for  his  natural  power  over  men.  No  human 
being  ever  showed  such  energy  in  war.  While  he  never 
spared  himself,  his  marches  sometimes  killed  with 
fatigue  the  men  and  horses  who  accompanied  him. 
Whatever  there  was  to  do,  he  did  it  with  the  utmost 
swiftness  :  generals  and  soldiers  felt  that  they  were 
commanded  by  a  man  whom  nothing  could  resist. 
It  is  true  that  his  adversaries  were  chiefly  Asiatics, 
so  that  the  victories  which  he  won  in  pitched  battles 
would  not  by  themselves  prove  Alexander  to  have 
been  a  great  general :  but  the  readiness  in  which 
his  troops  were  always  found,  the  astonishingly  long 
and  swift  marches  which  he  made  them  perform, 
the  certainty  with  which  he  carried  out  everything 
that  he  attempted,  and  the  confidence  which  his 
soldiers  felt  in  him,  prove  him  to  have  been  an  extra- 
ordinary leader.     Roman  generals  capable  of  forming 


n6  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA  MINOR.  [chap. 

a  good  judgment  considered  Alexander  to  have  been 
the  greatest  of  all  commanders  except  Hannibal  the 
Karthaginian.  In  bravery,  determination,  and  high 
spirit,  no  man  ever  surpassed  him.  But  when  we  look 
beyond  the  qualities  of  the  soldier,  and  compare 
Alexander  with  Perikles  or  other  of  the  really  noblest 
Greeks,  he  is  often  not  great  at  all,  but  contemptible. 
If  he  had  only  slaughtered  his  prisoners,  that  would 
not  have  been  a  stain  on  his  character,  for  it  was  a 
common  practice  at  the  time  :  but  Alexander  dragged 
alive  behind  his  chariot  a  general  who  had  gallantly 
opposed  him ;  he  tortured  and  put  to  death  on  mere 
suspicion  Philotas,  the  commander  of  his  cavalry, 
whose  friend  he  had  pretended  to  be  up  to  the  last 
moment;  he  killed  by  craft  Parmenio,  one  of  his 
oldest  generals,  the  father  of  Philotas,  on  the  same 
suspicion  j  he  took  advantage  of  being  a  king  to  murder 
Klitus,  one  of  his  oldest  friends,  in  savage  drunken- 
ness ;  he  tortured  and  hanged  Kallisthenes,  a  Greek 
writer,  on  suspicion  of  a  conspiracy,  but  in  part  because 
Kallisthenes  had  refused  to  worship  him  as  a  god. 
Alexander  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  the  hero  of 
Greece,  but  the  truth  is  that  there  was  very  little  of 
the  Greek  in  him  at  all,  and  much  more  of  the  half- 
barbarian  king.  In  the  last  years  of  his  life  conquest 
and  glory  brought  out  the  savage  and  wilful  parts  of 
his  nature  (p.  30) ;  and  if  he  is  to  be  treated  as  a 
Greek,  some  of  his  acts  can  only  be  compared  to  those 
of  the  very  worst  tyrants.  He  was  the  complete 
opposite  of  men  like  Perikles  or  Epaminondas,  who, 
as  their  power  increased,  kept  the  stricter  watch  over 
themselves,  and  were  the  more  anxious  to  respect  the 
rights  of  others. 

7.  Conquest  of  Asia  Minor.— In  b.c.  334 
Alexander  crossed  the  Hellespont.  The  best  troops 
which  the  Persians  had  to  oppose  to  him  were  regi- 
ments of  hired  Greeks,  and  the  commander  of  these, 
Memnon,  a  Rhodian,  understood  war  well.  Memnon 
advised  the  Persian  satraps  not  to  fight  a  pitched  battle 


•/it.]  CAPTURE  OF  TYRE.  117 

with  Alexander,  but  to  defend  the  mountain  passes 
and  the  towns,  and  to  send  the  Phoenician  fleet,  which 
was  superior  to  Alexander's,  to  excite  the  Greeks 
against  Macedonia  and  attack  Macedonia  itself.  The 
satraps,  however,  would  not  listen  to  Memnon,  but 
fought  a  battle  near  the  Hellespont  on  the  river 
Granikus,  which  Alexander  wron  after  very  hard  fighting. 
Darius,  king  of  Persia,  now  gave  the  commandership 
to  Memnon.  Memnon  prepared  to  act  by  sea,  and 
gained  over  several  of  the  ^Egsean  islands ;  but  soon 
after  this  he  fell  ill  and  died.  Alexander  overran  Asia 
Minor,  and  Darius,  giving  up  the  plans  of  Memnon, 
collected  an  enormous  army  to  fight  a  pitched  battle. 
The  battle  was  fought  near  Issus,  on  the  borders 
of  Kilikia  and  Syria  (first  map).  Darius  fled  with 
shameful  cowardice ;  and  though  the  native  Per- 
sians fought  bravely,  Alexander  gained  a  complete 
victory,  and  the  family  of  Darius  fell  into  his  hands 

(b.c.  333)- 

8.  Conquest  of  Phoenicia. — Darius  retreated 
across  the  Euphrates,  but  instead  of  pursuing  him 
Alexander  turned  south  into  Phoenicia.  Damascus 
was  taken,  and  the  Phoenician  seaports,  except  Tyre, 
surrendered  without  a  blow.  This  caused  the  Phoe- 
nician fleet  employed  by  the  Persians  to  break  up, 
and  the  best  chance  of  the  Persians  against  Alexander 
was  now  gone.  Tyre  alone  refused  to  admit  Alex- 
ander. The  city  of  Tyre  was  built  on  an  island  half  a 
mile  from  the  mainland,  and  was  surrounded  by  an 
immensely  strong  wall  (Ezekiel  xxvii.  3,  11).  The 
Tyrians  had  ships,  and  Alexander  had  none,  so  that 
in  their  island  city  it  seemed  as  if  they  might  safely 
defy  him.  But  Alexander  determined  to  reach  Tyre 
on  dry  ground,  by  building  a  solid  stone  pier  200  feet 
broad  across  the  half  mile  of  sea,  and  thus  connecting 
Tyre  with  the  land.  The  pier  was  built,  but  when  it 
came  near  the  city  walls  the  Tyrians  again  and  again 
destroyed  it.  At  last  Alexander  had  to  bring  up  the 
fleet  of  the   other  Phoenician    cities  to   protect  the 


u8  FOUNDATION  OF  ALEXANDRIA.        [chap 

builders.  The  pier  was  finished ;  Alexander's  siegr 
engines  were  rolled  along  it,  and  a  breach  was  at  length 
made  in  the  city  wall.  After  a  most  furious  struggle 
Tyre  was  taken  by  assault.  The  siege  lasted  seven 
months  ;  both  the  attack  made  by  Alexander  and  the 
defence  made  by  the  Tyrians  are  among  the  mosl 
famous  in  history  (b.c.  332). 

9.  Egypt.  Alexandria. — From  Phoenicia  Alex 
ander  passed  into  Egypt,  which  made  no  resistance. 
The  Persians  had  provoked  the  Egyptians  by  in- 
sulting their  animal  gods  (p.  52)  :  Alexander  on  the 
contrary,  offered  sacrifices  to  them,  in  order  that  the 
Egyptians  and  other  nations  might  see  that  he 
meant  to  respect  their  religion,  and  might  welcome 
his  government  in  place  of  the  Persian.  He  now 
founded  the  city  of  Alexandria  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Nile.  Alexandria  afterwards  became  the  most  im- 
portant city  in  the  world,  except  Rome,  but  Alexander 
cannot  have  foreseen  this.  His  object  in  founding 
it  was  probably  to  connect  Egypt  with  the  rest  of  his 
empire  by  creating  as  its  capital  a  trading  town 
on  the  coast,  with  a  population  of  mixed  Greeks  and 
Egyptians. 

10.  Arbela.  Marches  of  Alexander. — After 
visiting  the  temple  of  Amnion  in  the  desert  west  of 
Egypt,  Alexander  marched  through  Syria  to  the  north- 
east, and  having  crossed  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris, 
encountered  Darius  and  a  vast  army  near  Arbela,  not 
very  far  from  Nineveh.  Darius  again  fled  from  the* 
battle  at  the  first  sight  of  danger,  and  Alexander  won  a 
complete  victory  (b.c.  331).  .  He  now  ac^ed  as  master 
of  the  Persian  empire,  and  appointed  the  satraps. 
He  entered  Babylon  with  great  pomp,  and  pleased 
the  priests  and  people  by  sacrificing  to  their  gods, 
and  by  ordering  the  temples  which  the  Persians  had 
destroyed  to  be  rebuilt.  Having  given  his  troops  a 
month's  rest,  he  marched  to  Susa,  and  from  thence  to 
Persepolis  (south-east),  the  capital  of  the  native  dis- 
trict of  the  Persians.     Immense  treasure  was  found 


VII.]  DEATH  OF  DARIUS.  119 

here  and  though  no  resistance  was  made,  Alexander 
burnt  the  town  and  let  the  soldiers  massacre  part  of 
the  inhabitants,  merely  to  avenge  the  invasion  of 
Greece,  150  years  before,  upon  the  native  capital  of 
the  Persians  (b.c.  330). 

11.  Death  of  Darius. — Darius  had  fled  from 
Arbela  to  Ekbatana  in  Media,  and  Alexander  now  set 
out  in  pursuit  of  him.  As  Alexander  approached. 
Darius  escaped  eastwards  through  the  mountains  at 
the  south  end  of  the  Caspian  Sea.  Alexander  pur- 
sued day  and  night ;  but,  when  he  came  in  sight, 
Darius  was  murdered  by  Bessus,  one  of  his  own 
nobles,  that  he  might  not  give  himself  up  to  Alex- 
ander. 

12.  Alexander  beyond  the  Caspian. — After 
reducing  the  country  at  the  south  of  the  Caspian, 
Alexander  marched  east  and  south,  through  what  is 
now  Persia  and  Afghanistan.  On  his  way  he  founded 
the  colony  of  Alexandria  Arion,  now  Herat,  an  im- 
portant military  position  on  the  western  border  of 
Afghanistan.  At  Prophthasia  (Furrah),  a  little  further 
south,  he  stayed  two  months,  and  it  was  here  that 
Philotas  was  put  to  death  (b.c.  330).  Thence  he  went 
on  eastwards  and  founded  a  city,  said  to  be  the  modern 
Candahar,  and  then  turned  north  and  crossed  the 
Hindo  Koosh  mountains,  founding  another  colony 
near  what  is  now  Cabul.  Bessus  had  intended  to 
resist  Alexander  in  Bactria  (Balkh),  but  he  fled  north- 
wards, and  was  taken  and  put  to  death.  Alexander 
kept  on  marching  northwards,  and  took  Marakanda, 
now  Samarcand,  the  capital  of  Bokhara  (b.c.  329). 
He  crossed  the  river  Jaxartes  (Sir),  running  into  the 
sea  of  Aral,  and  defeated  the  Scythians  beyond  it,  but 
did  not  penetrate  their  country.  He  intended  the 
Jaxartes  to  be  the  northern  frontier  of  his  empire, 
and  founded  on  it  the  colony  of  Alexandria  Eschate 
(kayary),  the  furthest).  The  conquest  of  Sogdiana 
(Bokhara)  gave  Alexander  some  trouble,  and  occupied 
him  till  the  year  b.c.  327. 

11 


120  ALEXANDER  IN  INDIA.  [chap. 

13.  Alexander  in  India. — In  b.c.  327  Alexander 
set  out  from  Bactria  to  conquer  India.  He  reached 
the  upper  Indus,  and  having  crossed  it  near  Attock, 
marched  on  eastwards  through  the  Punjaub.  Beyond 
the  Hydaspes  (Jelum),  Porus,  king  of  the  country, 
met  Alexander  and  fought  a  battle ;  he  was  defeated, 
but  Alexander  allowed  him  to  keep  his  kingdom  as 
his  vassal.  Going  on  eastward  he  came  to  the 
Hyphasis  (Sutlej  or  Gurrah) :  and  now  the  soldiers 
refused  to  go  any  further  in  spite  of  Alexander's 
entreaties.  Alexander  therefore  turned  back,  but 
when  he  reached  the  Hydaspes,  he  put  part  of  the 
army  on  board  boats,  and  ordered  the  rest  to  march 
along  the  bank  down  the  river.  The  Hydaspes  Hows 
into  the  Akeslnes  (Chenab),  and  that  into  the  Indus, 
At  the  junction  of  the  Akesines  and  Indus  a  town 
and  docks  were  laid  out,  and  the  army  and  fleet  went 
down  the  Indus  till  they  reached  its  mouth,  and  saw 
the  Indian  Ocean  (b.c.  325).  Thus  2,000  years  ago 
Alexander  explored  the  course  of  that  river  along 
which  English  engineers  are  now  (a.d.  1875)  laying 
down  a  railway. 

14.  Voyage  of  Nearchus. — Alexander  was  as 
eager  for  discovery  as  for  conquest ;  and  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Indus  he  sent  his  fleet,  under  the  admiral 
Nearchus,  to  make  their  way  along  the  coast  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Euphrates.  He  himself  marched  west- 
wards with  the  army  through  the  deserts  of  Beloo- 
chistan,  and  brought  them  after  terrible  sufferings, 
through  thirst,  disease,  and  fatigue,  again  to  Persepolis 
(b.c.  324).  From  this  he  went  to  Susa,  where  he 
stayed  some  months,  investigating  the  conduct  of  his 
satraps,  and  punishing  some  of  them  severely. 

15  Asiatic  habits  of  Alexander. — Since  the 
battle  of  Arbela,  Alexander  had  become  more  and 
more  like  a  Persian  king  in  his  way  of  living,  although 
he  did  not  allow  it  to  interfere  with  his  activity.  He 
dressed  in  the  Persian  manner,  and  took  up  the 
ceremonies  of  the  Persian  court.     The  soldiers  were 


mJl  DEATH  OF  ALEXANDER.  121 

displeased  at  his  giving  up  the  habits  of  Macedonia, 
and  at  Susa  he  provoked  them  still  more  by  making 
eighty  of  his  chief  officers  marry  Persian  wives.  The 
object  of  Alexander  was  to  break  down  distinctions 
of  race  and  country  in  his  empire,  and  to  abolish 
the  great  gulf  that  there  had  hitherto  been  between 
the  Greeks  and  the  Asiatics.  He  also  enrolled  many 
Persians  in  the  regiments  which  had  hitherto  contained 
none  but  Macedonians,  and  levied  30,000  troops  from 
the  most  warlike  districts  of  Asia,  whom  he  armed  in 
the  Macedonian  manner. 

16.  Death  of  Alexander. — Since  the  voyage  of 
Nearchus,  Alexander  had  determined  on  an  expedi- 
tion against  Arabia  by  sea,  and  had  given  orders  for 
ships  to  be  built  in  Phoenicia,  and  then  taken  to  pieces 
and  carried  by  land  to  Thapsakus  on  the  Euphrates. 
At  Thapsakus  they  were  to  be  put  together  again,  and 
so  make  their  way  to  Babylon,  from  which  the  expe- 
dition was  to  start.  In  the  spring  of  B.C.  323,  Alex- 
ander set  out  from  Susa  for  Babylon.  On  his  journey 
he  was  met  by  embassies  from  nearly  all  the  States 
of  the  known  world.  At  Babylon  he  found  the 
ships  ready :  fresh  troops  had  arrived,  both  Greek 
and  Asiatic;  and  the  expedition  was  on  the  point 
of  starting,  when  Alexander  was  seized  with  fever 
and  died  (June,  B.C.  323).  He  was  only  thirty-two 
years  old. 

17.  The  Aims  of  Alexander. — It  is  sometimes 
said  that  the  purpose  of  Alexander  was  to  make  Asia 
like  Greece,  by  founding  cities  like  the  Greek.  The 
actual  result  of  his  conquests  was  that  the  western 
part  of  Asia  later  on  became  partly  Greek,  but  this 
was  much  more  the  work  of  Alexander's  successors 
than  of  Alexander  himself.  With  the  exception  of 
Alexandria,  the  colonies  which  Alexander  founded 
were  settlements  of  soldiers  in  remote  districts,  for  the 
purpose  of  keeping  the  empire  in  subjection,  not  ot 
making  it  Greek.  That  Alexander  wished  to  make  the 
nations  of  his  empire  more  like  a  single  people  is  clear 


122  AIMS  OF  ALEXANDER.  [chap. 

from  his  encouraging  his  soldiers  to  marry  Persian 
women  ;  but  this  is  not  the  same  thing  as  saving  that 
he  wished  to  spread  Greek  intelligence,  art,  and  liter- 
ature, over  his  empire  by  means  of  cities.  Nor  is  there 
any  reason  to  suppose  that  Alexander  meant  to  intro- 
duce a  new  system  of  government  into  the  Persian 
Empire.  He  kept  up  the  satrapies  and  the  Persian 
mode  of  taxation;  and  the  chief  difference  between 
his  government  and  that  of  the  Persian  kings  would 
be,  that  Alexander  meant  to  preserve  absolute  authority 
himself  by  means  of  his  army,  and  to  keep  the  satraps 
completely  under  his  own  control,  whereas  the  Persian 
kings  had  been  weak  and  indolent,  and  the  satraps 
had  become  like  independent  princes.  It  is  clear 
from  his  dealings  with  Egypt  and  Babylon  that  he 
meant  to  pay  more  attention  to  the  wishes  of  the 
different  nations  of  the  empire  than  the  Persians  had 
done ;  and,  though  he  had  no  new  system  of  govern- 
ment, he  would  have  greatly  altered  the  condition  of 
the  empire  by  making  roads,  ports,  and  docks,  and 
everything  that  could  advance  commerce  and  bring  the 
different  nations  into  communication  with  one  another. 
In  the  matter  of  government  Alexander  probably 
thought  that  the  Greeks  had  more  to  learn  from  the 
Persians  than  the  Persians  from  the  Greeks,  and  con- 
sidered the  Persian  system  of  one  great  empire  under 
a  single  king  to  be  much  better,  when  vigorously  con- 
ducted, than  the  Greek  system  of  little  States  and 
leagues. 

18.  Results  of  Alexander's  Conquests. — At 
the  death  of  Alexander  his  empire  was  divided  among 
his  generals.  A  great  number  of  cities,  such  as 
Antioch  (Acts  xi.  26)  and  Seleucia,  were  founded  in 
western  Asia,  inhabited  partly  by  Asiatics,  partly  by 
Greeks  coming  from  all  the  scattered  Greek  States. 
It  was  the  experience  of  the  Greeks  in  settling 
among  other  races  (p.  35)  that  now  made  them 
able  to  settle  so  successfully  in  Asia,  and  introduce 
their   own   ways   among  the   people   wherever    they 


vu.]         GREEK  HABITS  IN  WESTERN  ASIA.        123 

settled.  Though  under  the  dominion  of  Alexander's 
successors  these  cities  could  not  be  independent 
States  like  the  old  Greek  cities,  and  could  therefore 
bring  little  of  the  old  Greek  liberty,  high  spirit,  and  self- 
respect  into  Asia,  they  spread  the  Greek  language  and 
the  common  Greek  habits  of  life  very  extensively. 
In  external  appearance  these  cities  would  be  Greek  : 
there  would  be  the  temples,  statues,  baths,  theatre, 
colonnades,  &c.,  of  a  Greek  city  ;  religious  ceremonies 
and  festivals  would  be  conducted  in  the  Greek  manner 
(Acts  xiv.  11 -13);  Greek  would  be  the  language  most 
spoken,  and"  Greek  books  would  be  read  and  written  j 
though  from  the  mixture  of  races  there  would  always 
be  something  about  the  citizens  distinguishing  them 
from  the  inhabitants  of  purely  Greek  States.  In  some 
districts,  as  in  Syria,  Greek  habits  spread  very  easily  ; 
in  others,  as  in  Judaea,  the  most  obstinate  resistance 
to  them  was  made  by  the  native  population.  Antio- 
chus  Epiphanes,  king  of  Syria,  tried  to  introduce 
Greek  worship  at  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem.  The 
Jews  revolted,  under  the  Maccabees,  and  made  them- 
selves independent  (b  c.  160).  Yet  in  spite  of  this  the 
Greek  language  and  a  good  many  Greek  ideas  spread 
over  the  towns  of  Judaea.  Thus  the  books  of  the 
New  Testament  were  written  in  Greek. 

19.  Asia. — Alexander's  empire  broke  up  into  three 
principal  kingdoms — Macedonia,  Asia,  and  Egypt. 
The  kings  of  Asia  were  the  Seleukidae,  the  descendants 
of  Seleukus,  one  of  Alexander's  generals.  They 
were  not  able  to  preserve  Alexander's  conquests  in 
Asia  as  a  single  kingdom.  One  part  after  another  ol 
their  empire  was  lost.  Rhodes  and  other  islands 
formed  a  powerful  maritime  league  and  kept  them- 
selves independent.  On  the  west  coast  of  Asia  Minor 
there  rose  an  independent  kingdom  called  Pergamus, 
Greek  in  its  manners ;  in  the  north  and  centre  of 
Asia  Minor  a  number  of  States  were  formed,  such 
as  Pontus  and  Kappadokia,  with  little  trace  of  any- 
thing Greek  about  them.     Beyond  the  Euphrates  the 


(24  EGYPT,     MACEDONIA.  [chap. 

Parthians  revolted  and  founded  a  regular  Asiatic 
State.  The  Jews  made  themselves  free  in  the  south. 
Thus  the  kingdom  of  Asia  was  gradually  narrowed 
down  to  the  kingdom  of  Syria  ;  and  together  with 
all  the  other  States  as  far  as  the  Euphrates  it  fell 
at  last  into  the  hands  of  the  Romans,  and  became  a 
province  of  the  Roman  empire  (b.c.  63). 

20.  Egypt. — Egypt  was  governed  by  the  family  of 
the  Ptolemies;  and,  as  in  Asia,  Greek  was  the  lan- 
guage employed  in  government,  and  the  principal 
offices  were  in  the  hands  of  Greeks.  The  Greeks  and 
the  native  Egyptians  kept  quite  distinct  from  one 
another  (Acts  xxi.  37,  38).  Alexandria  was  thronged 
with  Greeks  and  Jews.  A  University  was  founded 
there,  and  all  the  most  learned  men  of  Greece  were 
brought  together.  Euclid  the  mathematician  and 
Ptolemy  the  astronomer  wrote  at  Alexandria.  There 
was  a  library  which  contained  almost  everything  that 
had  been  written  in  Greek.  But  though  science  and 
learning  flourished  in  Alexandria,  there  was  none  of 
the  old  Greek  poetic  genius,  or  simple,  natural,  force 
of  mind.  Nothing  was  written  there  to  compare  with 
the  works  of  the  great  Athenian  writers.  It  was  at 
Alexandria  that  the  Greek  translation  of  the  Old 
Testament  was  made  (b.c.  275-250),  and  that  learned 
Jews  became  acquainted  with  the  ideas  of  those 
Greeks  who  had  thought  most  on  religion.  The  last 
Greek  sovereign  of  Egypt  was  the  famous  Queen 
Cleopatra.  At  her  death  Egypt  was  made  a  Roman 
province  by  Augustus,  b.c.  30. 

21.  Macedonia. — There  was  confusion  in  Mace- 
donia for^a  long  time  after  the  death  of  Alexander, 
and  we  cannot  here  relate  the  wars  of  the  rival 
kings.  In  b.c.  289  a  tribe  of  Gauls  invaded  Mace- 
donia, and  did  much  mischief:  they  afterwards  crossed 
into  Asia  Minor,  where  they  learnt  something  of  Greek 
ways,  and  formed  the  state  called  Galatia,  or  Gallo- 
Graecia  (Acts  xvi.  6).  After  this  things  became  settled 
in  Macedonia,  and  the  descendants  of  Antigonus,  one 


trii.]  ACHAlAN  LEAGUE.  125 

of  Alexander's  generals,  kept  the  throne  until  the 
Romans  put  an  end  to  the  monarchy.  Philip,  who 
was  king  of  Macedon  at  the  time  of  the  second  war 
between  Karthage  and  Rome,  allied  himself  with 
Karthage ;  and  when  the  war  was  over,  the  Romans 
made  war  on  Philip  and  defeated  him  at  Kynos- 
kephalae  (b.c.  197).  They  put  an  end  to  the  control  of 
Macedonia  over  Greece,  and  declared  all  the  Greek 
States  to  be  free.  In  B.C.  171,  there  was  again  war 
between  Macedonia  and  Rome,  Perseus  being  now 
king.  Perseus  was  overthrown  in  the  battle  of  Pydna 
(b.c.  168)  :  the  monarchy  was  abolished,  and  Mace- 
donia divided  into  five  republics.  Twenty-two  years 
later,  on  pretence  of  a  rebellion,  Macedonia  was 
made  a  Roman  province. 

22.  Greek  States.  Achaean  League.  —  At 
the  death  of  Alexander,  Athens  and  many  other 
States  rose  against  Macedon,  but  were  brought  into 
subjection.  Demosthenes  had  to  fly  from  Athens, 
and  being  pursued  by  the  Macedonians  took  poison 
to  avoid  falling. into  their  hands.  For  the  next  fifty 
years  there  was  confusion.  About  B.C.  260  Antigonus 
*  Gonatas,  king  of  Macedonia,  was  master  of  all  Greece, 
except  Sparta.  Freedom,  however,  was  now  restored 
to  a  large  part  of  Greece  by  the  growth  of  two 
leagues,  the  Achazan  League  and  the  Aitolian  League. 
The  Achaean  League  was  originally  the  league  of  ten 
Achaean  cities  on  the  north  coast  of  Peloponnesus 
(p.  15),  and  hitherto  it  had  done  nothing  in  Greek 
history.  Antigonus  had  established  tyrants  in  these 
cities,  and  it  was  in  the  effort  to  get  rid  of  these,  and 
to  free  other  cities  from  similar  tyrants,  that  the  league 
became  the  active  and  important  enemy  of  Macedon. 
About  B.C.  240,  Aratus  of  Sikyon,  who  had  united 
Sikyon  to  the  league,  and  been  made  its  president, 
rescued  Corinth  from  the  Macedonians ;  and  the 
league  was  now  joined  not  only  by  all  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  cities  except  Sparta  and  a  few  others,  but  by 
Athens  and  ^Egina. 


126     GREECE  MADE  A  ROMAN  PROVINCE,    [chap. 

1  23.  ^Etolian  League. — North  of  the  Corinthian 
Gulf  the  rough  tribes  of  the  ^tolians  (p.  88),  who  did 
not  live  in  cities  like  most  of  the  Greeks,  and  were  alto- 
gether  more  like  a  barbarous  people,  formed  a  league 
which  now  became  very  powerful.  They  gained  con- 
trol over  Phokis,  Lokris,  and  Boeotia ;  but  were  held 
in  ill  repute  on  account  of  their  plundering  expeditions. 

24.  Sparta — Sparta  had  preserved  its  independence 
against  Macedonia,  but  it  had  lost  its  old  character  \ 
the  number  of  full  citizens  had  fallen  to  700,  and  all  the 
land  belonged  to  about  100  families.  About  B.C.  240, 
Agis,  king  of  Sparta,  attempted  to  abolish  debts  and 
divide  the  land,  so  as  to  create  a  large  body  of  citizens 
anew.  He  was  opposed  by  the  rich  and  put  to  death, 
but  his  successor,  Kleomenes,  carried  out  his  plans, 
and  made  Sparta  again  for  the  moment  a  powerful 
state.  The  Achaean  League  and  Sparta  were  jealous 
of  one  another,  and  went  to  war.  Kleomenes  de- 
feated Aratus,  and  Aratus  sacrificed  the  independent 
character  of  the  League  by  asking  the  Macedonian 
king  for  help,  and  allowing  it  to  fall  very  much  under 
the  control  of  Macedon.  Sparta  was  overthrown  (b.c. 
221),  but  the  League  gained  nothing  by  it.  Immedi- 
ately afterwards  there  was  war  between  the  Achaean 
and  ^Etolian  Leagues,  and  the  Achaean  League  again 
asked  help  of  Macedonia. 

25.  Greece  made  a  Roman  Province. — In 
B.C.  211,  on  account  of  Philip's  assisting  Hannibal, 
the  Romans  made  alliance  with  the  v^Etolian  League 
against  him  ;  and  from  this  time  the  Romans  con- 
tinued to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  Greece,  until  in 
b.c.  146,  having  been  appealed  to  by  Sparta  against 
the  Achaean  League,  they  captured  Corinth,  and  made 
Greece  into  a  Roman  province. 

26.  The  Vice  of  the  Greeks  their  Disunion. 
All  through  Greek  history  there  is  the  same  cause 
at  work,  ruining  the  power  of  Greece,  and  causing  it 
endless  miseries, — the  incapacity  of  the  Greeks  lor 
acting  together.     Not  only  does  this  appear  in  the 


vii.]  DISUNION  OP  THE  GREEKS.  127 

wars  between  the  cities,  and  in  their  failure  to  form 
any  lasting  union,  but  still  more  in  the  division  which 
existed  within  each  city.  Within  the  same  city-walls  the 
opposite  parties  hated  one  another  more  bitterly  than 
any  foreign  enemy.  Other  nations  have  had  a  greater 
gift  for  government,  and  have  possessed  that  power  of 
acting  together  which  was  so  fatally  wanting  in  the 
Greeks.  In  reading  the  history  of  the  Greeks  this 
great  fault  is  brought  clearly  before  .us ;  but  many  of 
the  great  qualities  of  the  Greeks  do  not  come  before 
us  in  a  history  at  all.  Their  quickness,  their  love  of 
knowledge,  their  power  of  creating  beautiful  things, 
cannot  be  brought  home  to  us  by  a  mere  account  of 
their  actions.  To  understand  these,  and  to  do  justice 
to  the  real  greatness  of  the  Greeks,  we  must  read  the 
books  written  by  the  Greeks  themselves,  and  know 
something  of  their  works  of  art.  No  one  who  has 
taken  the  trouble  to  make  himself  thus  acquainted 
with  the  Greeks  has  ever  regretted  the  labour  which 
it  cost  him. 


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